2806/Jar Time

Jar Time
Date of Scene:	23 October 2025
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	The time has come to begin research on the Jar of Memories and a group of sparkles gather in the shed to discuss different avenues to begin their research!
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Rashmi Terios, Souta Camero, Coco Kiumi, Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust, Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was sitting in the Shed, looking... well... disgruntled wasn't the right word. Embarrassed was. Besides her in a glass jar was the remains of the pin drive that had been... for lack of a better word... pulverized due to her, ahem, anger issues.

On the table was also the jar of memories, in a box with padding.

She had some diagrams, some sensors, but well... This was why she called Coco and Rashmi specifically, and why she asked them to call anyone they knew who'd be more magically inclined. She knew a lot about magic, yes. But she didn't have access to the tools that they did.

Magical devices were INCREDIBLY useful and she wasn't going to say they weren't. On top of that, Coco's mermaids had their own tools that worked better with these magics than anything she had access to, so it was downright necessary for her to reach out to them for help. And... frankly?

As much as she wanted to wipe Riventon's smug grin off his face and solve this situation herself, she'd rather solve this with her friends, than without them. Going it alone was the old Hinoiri. The new, improved Hinoiri liked having friends and wasn't going to let a little thing... okay a MASSIVE thing like her ego and anger problems get in the way of depending on them when she knew better.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Upon receiving Hinoiri's call, Rashmi turned around and sent a quick message off to Souta; while Chrono by her side would be *pleasant,* Souta's investigative background would help take them much farther, and so the text was sent off.

    << Hey Souta-kun! One of my friends needs help analyzing a thing, want to come with and put your brain to work? No fighting this time, I promise. Meet me at the Shed >>

A short time later, she breezes into the Shed with a box of cookies from a nearby bakery, all smiles. "Heyyyy Hinoiri-chan! I brought cookies and help!"

This. This was why work was always better with friends. Without friends, you have to supply your own snacks.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta Camero was not a scientist in the way that one typically thinks of such things. However, he was an Inspector, which involves a lot of forensics, and magical forensics comes with a lot of scanning tools that can be used to analyze items of power.

    Especially potentially dangerous Lost Logia of unknown make and design. Which something like a Memory Jar could certainly be categorized by.

    The Fade that claimed Admiral Harlown is never far from his thoughts, nor is the potential that it may one day claim him as well. Anything he could do to circumvent that, or simply buy them a little more time, is worth looking into.

    Of course, Rashmi's message didn't detail all of that, but a message from her is all the reason he needs to show up. He arrives out of henshin, his Device taking form of the reading glasses that rest in front of his curious green eyes. His long blonde hair trails behind him and he takes a moment to make sure it doesn't get caught in the door as it closes. With a reserved smile, he glances at both Rashmi and Hinoiri. "Here I am. What was it you wanted us to look at?"

    'Us' in this case refers to both himself and Paradise Spectrum.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
When it came to magic, the help that Coco would provide was less in physical objects, and more in the vast compendium of magic left behind by their predecessors: a lot of which relied on going through shelves and shelves of books without any real locating method besides starting to look and hope for the best.

It was a lot better when she could actually talk with Noel, since that was her passion, and there was by far the most to know about in her Kingdom.

Information about the Fade specifically was scarce, and the best you would get out of their Kingdoms was "it exists". In the grand scheme of things, the time that mermaids had spent outside of their kingdoms across millennia didn't even qualify as a drop in a bucket.

Sure, there was much speculation about its characteristics and who caused it, but when you got down to it, she would have just said it was all scholars defending their pet theories behind a polite veneer.

Still, there was never a time when she wouldn't show up to help if you didn't ask her, and within 15 minutes of receiving Hinoiri's message, she is already at the Shed, bringing with herself a wide selection of juices for everyone's taste.

"Hello, everyone." Coco smiles as she enters into the room. "What are we studying?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Rashmi called Hinote. Rashmi called Hinote and used the word 'Mystery' of the Jar.

"...Mystery?"

*Pop* goes the fedora on his head as it appears and Tracy points forward. "It was a dark and stormy night..." narrates Hinote as he pulls on the brim of the detective fedora and off he goes.

He bursts into the door like a thunderbolt, and points at Rashmi. "Heya, dollfaces!" he says. Uh oh. He's under the effects of a chara-change. Tracy looks smug about it.

"I heard there's a dark and evil mystery afoot. Tell me more about it." he says as he pulls out an old fashioned notebook and pencil stuck in the spiral binds he pulls out.

"-Let's get the facts, yeah?" he asks.

Souta Camero, FELLOW DETECTIVE!? okay INSPECTOR gets a firm nod.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, opening her mouth. "... Dollfaces," Hinoiri said.

And she looked like she was about one cinnamon roll from putting that chara in a bottle.

But, for now? She swallowed it down. "So... Riventon gave me the jar and, as far as I can tell, I think it's the real thing. It's certainly magical."

"... He's also obnoxious enough because he managed to make me mad enough that..." She motioned to the pin drive. Or the remains. "That. I... managed to not slug him, but... yeah. If you guys know anyone who can... fix... it. I know a bit about how to make some things. But repair work like that is so far outside of my league. He says it has his research on it but... I don't know if he was telling the truth on that, either."

"As for the jar? He said that past sparkles used it to store memories to pass down to future generations of sparkles. Obsidian wanted it either taken or destroyed. More importantly, he let slip that they're up to something with the fade and that we have less time than we think we do... and that something is going on. Something big. And he's in the middle of it. I don't think he meant to let me know all of that, either. I think he's trying to find a way to keep select people unaffected... but he's worried he won't have enough time, so whatever Obsidian has planned must be coming soon. Which means we're on a time crunch."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Dollfaces," Rashmi repeats after Hinoiri, but she just looks amused. "Don't hold it against him, when he's like this he's *gotta* talk like a pulpy detective novel. Good to see you, Pulp Noir! And Coco, excellent! So," she says, clapping her hands together. "Do we wanna do this *here,* or do we wanna go in *there,* where there's some tools and open spaces?"

With that, she points to a door that might not have been noticed by many over the last few months, with 'WORKSHOP' in place of a classroom placard. "...I found it a while back, and I've moved most of my work in there myself."

Grinning at the selection of juices in Coco's arms, she hefts her own cookie box. "I'm not... sure about the broken drive, though... That feels like an Amy-chan thing, she knows more about Earth-- I mean *land* computers than anyone else I know," she says, glancing at Coco and flushing. Mermaids *are* part of Earth, after all!

"Time crunch, huh? Well... I've only got a couple projects on the burner, so, perfect time to focus on this!"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta nods and half-waves at fellow magic inspector Hinote. The line between 'Inspector' and 'Detective' was often blurred to the point of being imaginary, and one who worries as much as Souta does about split ends is not going to get caught splitting hairs.

    Coco also gets a smile, and Souta gratefully accepts some juice. Sugar keeps the mind flowing, and fruit-based sugars tended to be better for that.

    He listens to Hinoiri's account of events without judgement. The pin drive was damaged, maybe even destroyed, and while that's certainly unfortunate he's also used to navigating the social landscape of the TSAB. One does not make their way through a military/police structure without navigating around some very large egos.

    All things considered he considers it a mark in her favor that she actually owned up to it.

    Paradise Spectrum runs an analysis on the pin drive, but it's alien tech to him. "I agree with Rashmi. Faust-san may be able to do something with it. Often with things like that, the data may still exist, but the means to access it are damaged. Sadly, electrical engineering has never been my specialty. That's something I'd usually bother someone else over."

    "As for the time crunch, I can assure you that I have nothing better to do. Not with these stakes. Especially now that the Molly situation has been... resolved, more or less." He doesn't consider the loss of an arm to be a perfect win, but he's also grateful she was recovered at all.

    His eyes go towards the door to the workshop, and with a half-smirk he says, "Oh, I don't see why not. Shall we?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco places the box with the juices on the nearest table. "Don't worry, Hinoiri, he means it well", Coco suggests seraphically.

"Hi, Rashmi!", Coco brightly greets the redhead, slightly tilting her head with a smile. She immediately picks the box back up when the Device Mage points to the hard-to-see door. "This is certainly convenient. Are we sure it's not making new rooms when it feels like it?"

The news about the Fade causes the appearance of new lines across Coco's forehead and around her mouth. "I can't do much about the drive. We don't have much tech. Most of our day-to-day uses magic, but I will go back right away and start looking for anything I can get my hands on. The others will want to chime in too, especially Noel", the blonde girl promises.

"Don't worry about it", Coco immediately smiles at Rashmi at the colouring of her friend's cheeks. "Computers are a land deal, so you weren't wrong. Ask Hippo: he makes a lot of gadgets, but he couldn't repair a phone if his life relied on it."

Hinoiri mentioning the function of the Jar gets a different reaction from her, and the steps the mermaid takes towards the Workshop freeze there. "Is that what it does? Really?", she comments with a lift of her eyebrows.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari looks blankly at Rashmi and Hinoiri as he's called out. "Why the annoyed look?" he asks to Hinoiri. He then takes these notes about the jar into his notebook and then huhs the fade?

"Remind me. The Fade is that thing that makes adults... forget?" he asks as he takes these notes.

He then huhs as he looks at the jar. "Is there...."

"Anything currently in it?" he asks currently. "In terms of. Memories. I mean it is a Jar of Memories. Right?" he asks as he tugs at the brim of his chara-granted fedora. Tracy nods.

"Yeah know, that makes sense on paper, but maybe it's been emptied since?" Tracy asks.

"Can memories truly cease to exist?" Hinote asks curiously.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced towards the door that Rashmi mentioned. "Huh... always weird when stuff like that happens... magical disguising doors..." she mumbled. "Okay then. Let's do it," as she helped to gather things to start the move. "And yeah. As far as I can tell, no memories in it now. Riventon probably drained them. He said he took some of the residual magic out and that's likely what he meant. Him, being him, there's no telling if he saw anything, or he's just messing with us, or me. Who knows."

"You're not wrong, though. Amy probably would be great at this kind of thing. I could probably take one of these apart and put it back together... with a piece or two left over. But rebuilding it from pieces... not so much," Hinoiri said with a sigh. "And yeah, the fade is what wipes our memories. It's also what puts a time limit on me being here to begin with. Once the fade starts to hit, I've got to go, since I can't stick around and let my... well... whole life vanish," Hinoiri said sheepishly. "So I'm kind of... pro figuring out how we stop it."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
As Coco freezes on her way to the workshop, Rashmi raises an eyebrow. "...Huh... Yeah... I wonder..."

Shaking her head, she leads the group into the Workshop, which... being a magical creation, doesn't have much in the way of *large* equipment. But Rashmi managed to finagle a rolling toolcase, and there are several large workbenches, and twice as many wheeled whiteboards, four of which currently have scribbles on them and stand around a corner workbench.

"Nicomachea," she says, unfastening the Device's standby form from the cord around her neck. "Set Up."

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE, >> intones the Device, and a bubble of light forms above Rashmi's hand, shattering a few seconds later to reveal the armored-book Device in all his glory. Choosing a different bench, she sets the Device down on it. "Time for some heavy-duty analysis, Nico-kun."

    << *BONG!* >> << DEPOT INVESTIGATION >>

A disc of solid light, ringed in Midchildan 'rune-tape,' bwips into existence above the book's pages, followed shortly by half a dozen screens, which with a gesture are expanded to take up most of the room between the table-top and the ceiling, for maximum visibility.

"If we can stop the Fade," Rashmi says quietly, "we *need* to. If it was just me, I wouldn't mind so much... I had plans for my life before, and I still want them now, but... Yeah, Hinoiri-chan. There's just too many people whose *entire lives* would be altered-- *have been* altered by the Fade, and... no. Never again."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari raises an eyebrow. "So when has ol' Whitehead..." (Hinote must have a pulpy name for Riventon there.) "...been a reliable narrator?" he asks curiously.

Hinote then follows along and still taps his notebook as Tracy follows along and examines all the things in the room with a magnifying glass. (A tiny one.) and Hinote frowns. "Let's stop it then." he resolves. "We just need to find out what causes it right? Maybe the Jar has some clues...." he says. "If not memories themselves." he offers. "But maybe that's better for the Inspector here to figure out. He got the tools I ain't got, see?" he says.

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta starts moving towards the workshop door, along with Hinoiri and Rashmi. If there's anything that needs an extra hand or two to help move, he helps, either by carrying something or by holding the door open for someone who needs it. Once they are inside, he takes a look around. "This Shed never ceases to surprise me. Such an interesting space."

    Once Rashmi starts setting up, and Hinote starts his own investigation, he taps the side of his glasses and says, "Paradise Spectrum, time for us to follow suit."

    < Mission Start >

    The lenses of his glasses start to line up, and a holographic projection fills the space around him. Strings and lists of data float by in the air as the jar and pin drive are both scanned. Three dimensional enlargements of both are suspended in the air, glowing and translucent as Paradise Spectrum analyzes each in detail. Labels and figures are attached to different parts of the jar, and any detectable mana or magic remaining is highlighted.

    The exact shape of the fractures on the pin drive, a 3D mesh of the jar, the slight amount of oil and grease in the fingerprints upon each... all of it is noted and categorized, and that data is listed and stored. Souta will likely be pouring over this data later. The holographic image takes all of the information that Paradise Spectrum is able to glean from its scanners and tries to display it in a way that the others in the room can see it, because Souta's job often involved not only gaining data but presenting it in an informative way to others.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco drops the box once more and crosses her arms. "If that's what Riventon wanted you to have, there... is something you should know", she hesitates, looking conflicted. "We have something in the sea that does the same thing at the Jar."

Can she really share it as easily as this? Wouldn't Sara think of it as a betrayal? But they are her friends too, and she could never live with herself if she lost them, and could have done something about it. "It's called the Spiral Shell, and it's somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Sara had used it to get rid of her memories of Mitsuki, hoping she would be free from the pain."

She takes a deep breath. "You know that didn't work, and now I don't know in which part of the Indian Ocean it is, but its magical energy is unmistakable. It shouldn't be too hard to find."

"They can", Coco tells Hinote. "I can only give you an outside perspective since we mermaids don't go through the Fade, but we have enough stories in our kingdoms about what happens when humans go through the Fade to confirms it really happens."

Too bad nobody bothered writing down their ages, or else she would have been able to know it had been getting worse a lot sooner than the Magic Exhibit.

"I think we shouldn't be focusing on recovering those memories with what we know right now", Coco considers, shifting her look to Hinoiri. "I don't think we can get at them."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara walked with the others and, well... started adding her own notes. There was a saying that a poor craftsman blamed their tools... That was a lie. A good craftsman knew that the quality of the tool could make all the difference. There was a reason good craftsmen valued their tools so highly. Having access to better tools to study the magic would help her own research immensely, and while it would take a while for them to be able to figure much out...

At least now they could make headway. And with so many of them working together, she was certain they'd make amazing progress.

And then Coco threw a new curveball her way.

"What?" she asked, turning towards Coco. "... Do you think you could find it? If we had the spiral shell and we could compare the magical signature between the two, the places the were similiar, heck, the places they were different, could tell us so much. Where they touched into the fade, how they interacted with memory. It could help us identify where this world's magic connects into memory to begin with. That'd be two sources of information!"

She then glanced towards Hinote. "As for Whitehead... pfft... He's not, generally. But I generally know how to read between the lines with him. It's what he does and doesn't say to me. And what he can and can't say. There's kind of a... code... more or less, when dealing with Obsidian. It's not foolproof, but it's the best we've got in a lot of cases."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari looks at Coco as he tips the brim of his fedora and he smiles. "I'd like to speak to some of them then. Your friends. Find out what the fade is about from them. If you're willing?" he asks. He then writes. 'Speak to Mermaids?' on the goals section of the notes. Along with 'Investigate Fade' and 'Figure out the Memory Jar'.

Tracy looks at the notebook and nods.

Hinote looks at the various holographic screens popping up now as he huhs a little, as he looks to Hinoiri. "So you trust him on this matter at least to some degree, then. Huh." he says as he takes a note.

He doesn't share this note.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi nods along with Coco's explanation, lips pursed, and when Hinoiri asks if they could find it, Rashmi looks up to the mermaid, as if to say 'It's up to you, but I'll have your back.'

And when Souta's Device completes its scans of the jar's physical being, Rashmi fetches a couple of rags, and sets it on the disc. "So Nicomachea's more concerned about magic and its interactions than with the physical, like Paradise Spectrum does. I'm not sure how much *useful* information we'll get out of this, but if the leftover magic *is* anything like something he's encountered before, that could give us a starting point."

Privately, she hopes the Jar *does* contain traces of mermaid magic, but that largely because it would be the easiest trail to follow. As rune-inscribed loops travel up and down over the jar, and the screens start to fill with numbers, graphs, and other kinetic abstractions of measurements, Rashmi finds something sweet among the offered juices, and flips open the cookie box for all to take from.

Souta Camero has posed:
    If Souta ever blamed his tools, Paradise Spectrum would take offense. Not that he'd ever have cause to blame her.

    Coco's information on the shell does get his attention, though. "True. If we had something to compare the Jar to, it'd be useful. Maybe even give us another avenue to avoid whatever it is that the Fade is doing. Do you think it'd be hard to recover? If you need help, I could offer."

    He doesn't have much to say about memories that are already lost. Memories get distorted all the time, thanks to various glitches and shortcomings with how the brain works, but the past always exists in some form or another, even if FTL travel is required to see it.

    To Rashmi, he explains, "Well, it's more about the history of the object, as well as maybe a bit of its function. It's often been important for me to determine if a given thing proposes a significant threat, as well as who's been messing with it recently and what they've done with it. Of course, the Veil on this world always complicates matters. Especially when it comes to identifying evidence like fingerprints."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Yes, I can. No doubt about it", Coco confirms to Hinoiri, keeping her feelings quiet. "It would take me a bit, but it's like I said. It would be impossible to miss it", she nods, opening a bottle of mango juice.

"The only thing is exactly what your research is about. Some of the memories Sara put in there aren't really happy. We will have to purify it first", she warns the group. "It's troublesome, not hard, but still something to watch out for."

Coco gives Rashmi a smile at her friendly gaze, and she can feel her heart calm down. "Once we are done here, I will talk with Seira so she can lead us to the Indian Ocean, and I will tell you once I can narrow it down", the mermaid replies, taking one of the cookies Rashmi is offering, a cookie with currants.

"Yes, of course. It's not hard to meet them. We can set it on any day." She takes out her phone and shows Hinote her number to get a message later.

"The hard part would be narrowing down where it is, but once I am past that, I would appreciate if you could me with me for its recovery", she tells Souta.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small shrug to Hinote. "I trust him to a degree, yeah. I've had more positive interactions with him than a lot of you guys have, so... I've just been able to work more out with him. But I really don't expect you guys to feel the same way, either," she said, giving a small shrug.

She didn't notice the unshared note... namely because she was taking notes herself, and just assumed it was like that, they were all taking notes... if she'd thought it was about her, she likely would have gotten very grouchy.

She took one of the cookies as she started writing out notes, mumbling to herself as she started drawing, chewing a bit...

"Though that could mean that the jar is old, too. Or it comes from the mermaids, even. Possibly a divergent point? Two different magical systems with the same solutions? Ohhhh, the theories from it are endless."

She then paused and realized... her cheeks went a little red and she glanced away. "A-ah. Right. The uhhhh... memories themselves. We... could probably... err. Right. We could likely avoid... looking at them directly, of course. I mean, I don't see why we'd need to see them, you know?" she said. "If they're personal and whatnot. We'd need the jar and the magic, not the uhhh... personal part of it."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Hinoiri's hemming and hawing definitely gets Rashmi's attention, and as Nicomachea continues to chew on sensor input she turns, tilting her head. "What's up, Hinoiri-chan?"

It's the way she asks that question; that pure, clear-eyed curiosity without judgment or suspicion, that says that no matter what Hinoiri is trying to avoid talking about, it'll be no cause for shame in the redheaded Devicer's eyes.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Thanks, that would be nice", Coco says to Hinoiri, smiling awkwardly at her embarassment. "But the magical energy container in those memories could act up, so we should probably expect to purify it before we can actually use it", she clarifies. "Nothing bad should happen, if we keep our guard up."

Souta Camero has posed:
    On the subject of recovering memories themselves, Souta clears his throat. "Unless there's a reason why accessing such memories are necessary to carry out our mission, or are otherwise necessary to maintain public safety, I'm personally inclined to not intrude upon the privacy of whoever's memories they may be."

    He's not sure if they're discussing the Jar or the Shell, specifically... but unwanted romantic memories can involve a lot of stuff that is none of Souta's business.

    He does nod to Coco, saying, "Naturally. I don't have purifying magic myself, but I could help contain the item if needed."

    As long as the Heart Locker didn't reach out for it, he thinks to himself.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The door opens and "Ohmigosh I'm so sorry I forgot I'm sorry I'm late!" words rush out of an out-of-breath Amy who may have just run across campus as much as she could and then fumbled the door-opening ritual multiple times.

    She glances between the people gathered here. "Am I too late? I'm sorry. I forgot." She looks at the floor nervously. "What's um. So what's going on? If it still is. If it's better if I just go I can go..."

    It's helped a lot that school has a daily routine and that she's often going with friends to things and that youma are kind of a 'head towards the dark energy right now' thing and not something she has to remember to show up on time for. But talking up plans for helping recover the data and then not showing sure is A Thing how could she not feel bad about that.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a shrug. "Nothing, just... I mean... Riventon is just... being more of a pain in the butt than usual. Worried about him, is all. Nothing major," she said. "And yeah, purifying it isn't a bad idea."

She glanced towards Amy and... "No biggy, nothing to really be late about. We're just studying some magical thingies," Hinoiri said. "How do you feel about trying to repair a pin drive that uhhh... got... a little damaged?" 'A little' she said. Looks like she went at it with a hammer...

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy realizes that the wave of disappointment and judgement she's bracing for is not forthcoming. Just letting her get right down to business is the best outcome she could hope for! Just letting her get right down to business and genuinely not seeming to find it a big deal is a possibility that didn't occur to her, and she starts to relax and catch her breath.

    "Uh... well... I have to see it." She moves closer to look at the pin drive. Ultimately, her first concern is whether there's any visual crack in or damage to the data storage chip itself. If not, there's hope for non-magical means of recovery.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Amy-chan~!" Rashmi says, absolutely delighted to hear the Puella enter. "C'mon over, it's on the table there!"

Gesturing toward the crushed bit of technology, she moves over to the box of cookies. "Coco-chan brought juice, and I brought cookies, Amy-chan. Have as many as you like."

With the important bits out of the way, she considerswhat had been discussed so far. "So... based on what you said, Hinoiri-chan, if there *are* memories still in the jar, they'd probably be, like... instructive. If it was used to pass knowledge down to circumvent the Fade, I can't see it having any tragic romances in it... But purifying the Shell, definitely a good idea. Would you be able to do that on your own, Coco-chan, or would you want help?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Hello, Amy-chan", Coco comments with a wave at the new arrival. "We were discussing the Jar of Memories to fight off the Fade and I brought up something from Sara's kingdom."

"There is this mystical relic Sara used to contain her memories of Mitsuki so she could keep her heartbreak under control", she reassumes with a nervous smile.

"It's called the Spiral Shell, and since it and the Jar do the same thing, we were looking into recovering it, since it could be useful." Coco finishes explaining.

"Juice?", she offers, taking a bottle in her hand, and extending it towards Amy.

"It depends on how intensely it's acting up, but I would feel more at ease if I had you by my side. Would you like to come with me once I have narrowed it down?", the blonde girl asks Rashmi.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks at the discussion of, "Shell?" Although then Coco explains. Juice? "Uh, thanks." She will take one, although she doesn't take cookies until after she's looked at the drive.

    "Uh... wait... if this jar stores memories to help future generations... I mean, great if we can do that and all, but... did I miss something or is this not related to actually stopping the Fade itself?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"So Hinoiri-chan got the jar and the drive from Riventon," Rashmi says, cookie half-eaten. "Between that and what he apparently said, it *is* a clue to stopping the Fade, just... one he already has that we have to catch up on. Which is why the jar itself is interesting, but I think the *really important part* will be on that drive."

When Coco asks for her help, Rashmi turns to grin at the mermaid. "Come with you to help retrieve a mermaid artifact that might help stop my friends from losing their memories? Coco-chan you don't even need to *ask,* I am so in."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods. Well, no pressure on her, just have to figure out how to recover the data that might stop all of them from forgetting everything! No pressure!

    She takes the broken drive, prods at the pieces, carefully removes any bits of housing still around some of the PCB. Prying carefully with a screwdriver to get the housing apart. She lets out a sigh of relief. "Well... the break doesn't look like it's through the biggest chip, at least... The part you shattered here -- ah, the damaged part, I mean, is just the PCB, see?" She grabs a pen and points at where the... the green-with-hold-traces-computer-board-thingie is broken, with multiple fragments along the break.

    "The actual data is probably stored here," she points with the pen at the largest of the little black rectangles with shiny legs stuck to the green computer board thingie.

    "So... hopefully... if we can find another drive of the same model, we can take off the chip it came with, and swap this chip in, and voila, working drive! If we can't, it's going to be more complicated... uh... I mean, we'll basically need to supply all the functionality the rest of this does to connect it to a computer, you see?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Hooooow identical do we need to be?" Rashmi pipes up, gnawing on her lower lip. "Like... do we need to hunt for a model number on that, or-- no I suppose a best-guess *wouldn't* work..."

Girl spent over a year learning how to fit together bits and pieces to make alien magical AI personal assistants happen, but thumbdrives escape her. ...Magic *is* kinda bullshit, when you think about it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shrugs. "I mean, the rest of it needs to be functionally the same. Maybe they changed it between models. Maybe they didn't. Maybe we can find another design that works with the same storage chip. ...Actually I wonder if you can just order these PCBs from somewhere? But probably not. So it's more like... best chance to be able to do a simple -- well simple, uhh, I hope the robotics club or someone has whatever the hell you use to solder pins this tiny--"

    "Anyway the best chance for us to be able to do a chip swap is to try and get the exact same, otherwise we're gonna have to do research. ...Which I will of course start immediately anyway."

    She leans over and looks close at the piece of electronics and grabs a sheet of paper and a pen from her bag and begins muttering things like 'are there any part numbers on here?' and '...Better record the pin orientation here... is there any indication of which way it's oriented?' and '...does it matter which controller you use if it's made for the same storage chip? Can that change the format the data's stored in? Hmmm...'

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Yeah that makes sense," Rashmi murmurs, tugging a random homework thumb-drive out of Nicomachea's inventory, and giving it the kind of sour look that bespeaks deep, personal betrayal. How *dare* it not be sufficient unto the day...

And when Amy's mutterings have taken on the familiar sort of cadence that suggests hyperfocus might be loosening its grip -- she *has* worked with Entrapta enough to get it -- she clears her throat, setting a couple cookies on a napkin at Amy's elbow. "So is there anything I could help with, or have you got this for now?"

When you want to help an expert, after all, you let the expert set the pace and give the orders. And while Rashmi might know what she's doing when it comes to magitech esoterica and mana analysis... Thumb-drive repair is *entirely* Amy's wheelhouse.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy Faust glances up from the notes, "Hmm? I mean... trying to visually match what model it is and find where to buy one like it? Can Nichomachea help you with that? Even if not..." as she talks, she remembers the pieces of plastic housing are there -- they weren't relevent to the notes she was making -- and slides the pieces of plastic housing a few inches towards Rashmi.

    "Easier for us if you can find it, if not I'll see if we can get a similar board somewhere, and if not..."

    "... I mean." She looks down at the PCB. "Obviously someone designed this, right?"

    She taps her pen near it. "Designing this is a learnable skill and we have academic resources and, if needed, I'm sure Setsuna can help with money. It's just. Y'know. Something we'll have to figure out from manuals and textbooks..."

    "I mean. It's not like we have to do it from the metal." She points her pen-tip at the little black boxes and little cylinder thingies and whatnot on the board. "All these ICs and capacitors and stuff are probably standard parts you can get somewhere. Although I guess not Radio Shack, anymore..."

    She does stare into space for a moment wondering... "...If there's no Radio Shack where do you even go instead? I guess online somewhere?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I can do that, sure!" Rashmi says. "Or, Souta also did a physical scan, his Device is a *lot* more helpful for looking for physical stuff."

When Amy gripes about not being able to find a Radio Shack, Rashmi blinks, once, twice. "Um, Amy-chan? Setsuchan took you to Akihabara once already, right? I'm pretty sure if there's any kind of parts you'd need, you can get them there."

Electric Town: The Mecca for all things hardware and software, and assorted otaku and cosplay nonsense. Because Tokyo gotta Tokyo.

But as she says that, she starts treating the housing like a jigsaw puzzle, carefully sliding bits together to see whether or not they match. The lucky thing is; crushing force by nature has to do most of its damage at the *middle* of a thing, so at least it's easy to tell which end is the front and which is the back.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    There will be many confused messages somewhere on the internet later when Amy attempts to find out what happened to Radioshack. Right now, though...

    "A physical scan couldn't hurt. How deep is it? If... anything else happens, or goes wrong, or we damage this chip somehow... we might need to recover the data from a magical scan. ...If anyone's Device can spare the space, it would be nice to have a scan of the chip, here. I'm... not sure how good the resolution has to be. Tiny, if we're hoping to see the individual bits..."

    Amy blinks. "Oh! Right, there's gotta be someplace there if anywhere, right? An electronic parts store isn't the same as a computer or game store though, so I dunno offhand. More research..."

    Amy blinks. "Oh wait. Getting ahead of ourselves, we might not have to do all that. Just lemme get all this down in case we have to..." scribble scribble, she takes some photos of the PCB with her phone.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Uuuuuh, I don't think the kind of resolution you'd need to see individual bits *exists,* unless you're talking about an electron microscope," Rashmi hazards. "I found a spectral analyser for mana that could get to the cellular range, but I lost a lot of that resolution incorporating it into Nicomachea. Still good for gross mana scans, and the wavelength sensitivity's a lot better, but *definitely* not electron-scale."

Even as she talks, she's still diligently piecing together the casing, assembling them onto two pieces of clear tape; one for the front and top, the other for the back and bottom. This way it can at least be made to stay together, and avoid little things like the wrong breath scattering plastic shards over the workroom.

Amanda Faust has posed:
I don't think the kind of resolution you'd need to see individual bits *exists,*
    "MMMAGIC!" Amy gestures, vaguely, in astonishment.

    Beat.

    "Right, I'm sorry. Now I understand the person who says 'But a computer can do it, right?'" She sighs.

    "That was the hail mary plan for getting the data if everything else failed, so... we just have to... one of the others will probably work. Probably."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    After awhile she notices the tape, and realizes what it's for. "Ooh, that's really smart! See, I dunno if I'd have thought of that... So that's a big help already!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Yeah but I didn't think of how I'd get the *writing,*" Rashmi chuckles, picking up a bit of tape and turning it over. "But *that* I can definitely depend on Paradise Spectrum to handle, so if I just handle the really *really* fiddly bit, magic can get us the rest of the way."

At Amy's 'but can't magic do it?' Rashmi can't help but laugh, gently. "According to Chrono, there's so much magic *shouldn't* be able to do that Earth is a terrifying hellhole of Lost Logia in object *and* person form. At least with Devices, it's just another *kind* of technology, and that always has limitations, right? Now if you really, really need that Hail Mary, Ami-chan'd probably be the one you'd want to call. I don't even *get* how Silver Millennium stuff works, it's all backwards pig-Martian to me. So it is, at least, worth asking."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shrugs at the bit about not getting the writing on the other side. As Rashmi then points out, there's another solution.

    She smiles good-naturedly at Rashmi's laugh, it is funny. And she nods, "Right, good idea, that can be another backup, Moon Kingdom magitech stuff."

    "...So... so for someone who like, trained in and understood Devicer magic, this is like... going to a dimension where like..."

    She tries to think.

    "...where there's like, Transformers, and humanoid robots, and mecha, and, and humanoid robots you can upload people into, and, like, that scanner from Tron that turns people into a computer program but not in the same way and also there's hackers like in cyberpunk stories that go to the same iconic cyberspace as the scanned Tron people or maybe not maybe it's different for some reason and you don't know why and also people who somehow can do everything hollywood hackers can do by typing really fast and it all works..."

    Amy stops and thinks about this for a moment. And then a longer moment.

    "Oh my god, poor Chrono."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Right?!" Rashmi says -- and thankfully, she wasn't holding anything at the moment -- as her hands shoot up over her head. "*Now* imagine that the first example of someone with Meister talent you come across on this world is not only doing TSAB crimes, *his* Device is like someone took a broom and a weed-trimmer, and smeared them in an unknown radioactive tar to put them together, *and somehow it still works.*"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy sighs in a way that is probably as close as she can get to a noise Chrono has no doubt also made.

    After a moment, she asks, "...I wonder how it all really works. Reality's not entirely unpredictable... people made Devices. The Incubators must've made at least some of the Puella Magi system, or understood something they found well enough to use for their own purposes. Mermaids and Angels must have magic artificers making their stuff, right? And: Moon computers."

    "Like. There was a whole civilization that colonized the solar system. That's not a few esoteric wizards that's, that's building infrastructure on a lunatery scale."

    Beat.

    "I was so excited, going to an Earth Kingdom library in the memory bubble to find books on magic, but..." She sighs, and pulls out her phone, and scrolls, and scrolls, and scrolls, and scrolls

    and scrolls

    and scrolls

    and then shows Rashmi a photo of a page of a book of nonsense writing. "But whatever magic made the memory bubble, didn't record that."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...Yeah," Rashmi sighs. "I'd thought about that too, but... instead I figured I'd just get my answers straight from the awful diabolist mass-murderess' mouth. I figured it half-ran on dream logic, y'know? If we're going through someone's memories, then unless they were reading something *important enough to remember,* probably there wouldn't be any writing that made sense. ...Assuming anything written would have translated to Japanese anyhow."

Pursing her lips, she stares down at the pieces. "...I *almost* regret talking to Beryl," she confesses. "Almost... mostly because I didn't learn anything that made it *any* easier to sleep at night."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "I mean, I did suspect the possibility but I had to check all the same. Honestly, the whole thing felt more like I was stuck in an Elder Scrolls game, with how the NPCs acted. I mean the people. The memory people. You know what I mean... I didn't think it'd translate, but like, maybe the Senshi could translate some..."

    Amy blinks.

    "You... talked to Beryl's memory? What did you learn? Besides more about what an awful person she was, I gather."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Sitting back in her chair, Rashmi turns her juice bottle over in her hand, quiet for a moment as she recalls the conversation. "...She *hated* the Moon Kingdom," she says after awhile. "Like... it was *unfair* that the moon have all that power, and they don't share it with Earth, and even *I* know enough Star Trek to know why the Prime Directive is a thing! That was the *whole reason for the war,* because Beryl was salty about power imbalance and wanted to make the Moon pay."

She subsides for a bit. Then; "...And then I told her how many people lived on Earth in my time. And how many lived on the Moon. And all she could say was 'Looks like I was right.'"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks like she has complicated feelings about the Prime Directive. And then when told Beryl wanted the Moon's power, she blurts out, "Oh. I thought it was because she wanted to ffffff she wanted Mamoru. Err, Endymion."

    This rather contrasts with the somber note about the fate of the Moon.

    ".........You know. That's kinda weird, right? The other Senshi all were part of the Moon Kingdom, kinda, or... vassals to it or something? Which means when hey had Saturn Moonlight Butterfly everything," she may have forgotten what that move is actually called, if she was told,

    "...it made life on Earth restart, but why not anywhere else? Why?"

    "The Moontians and everybody else weren't from Earth, right, like, they're not genetically human you've seen Serenity, she glows. So where'd they originate from? Why didn't they restart there like Earthlings did on Earth?"

    Amy holds her hand to her chin, leaning back against the chair-back, pondering.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Could not tell you," Rashmi says softly. "But from what Setsuchan's said... The other planets weren't, like, *terraformed.* My *best guess* would be more dome cities like on the Moon, but every Princess of all the inner planets were *there* when the Glaive fell. Maybe that has something to do with it? Maybe not... but it's also not really the kind of thing I much *want* to talk to any of them about, *especially* Setsuchan. Those kind of memories... that's not worth my curiosity, y'know?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I mean the, the... the end of the world thing she can do. The Moonlight Butterfly basically destroys all technology, right? And makes people start over from the stone age. So if those planets weren't terraformed..."

    "...I hope it didn't put any living people back on them." She nods at Rashmi's comment about such memories.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Mmm, well, the rest of the solar system doesn't naturally support life," a warm, sleep-tinged voice says from above the two girls' heads.

Should they look up, they'll catch a glimpse of wine-red eyes peering at them from the darkness of the rafters, just before a black-furred form leaps gracefully down to the work table, well away from the careful work being done. Luna sits up gracefully, tail curling over her forepaws, and peers curiously at the work they're doing as she yawns, showing off petite fangs.

"I'm never surprised to see any of you at work in the Shed but... I admit to being somewhat surprised to hear that topic, while you're working on something so normal."

Unless her eyes deceive her, that sure does seem to be a regular USB drive.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The sudden new voice makes Rashmi start, but upon spotting Luna's eyes in the rafters, her face blooms into a bright, sunny smile. "Luna-san!" she chirps. "Hi!"

Her eyes drops to the thumbdrive casing, then she looks over to Nicomachea, scanning away at the jar itself, and chuckles. "Well I mean... One thing both of us really, really wish we could find is like... a point of commonality, that helps us understand *all* magic, and what we saw on the Moon Kingdom seems to just... sit in the center of *everything* we've seen, y'know? Properly inexplicable magic, and computers, and literal star-crossed lovers and I guess a *galaxy* spanning civilization?"

Sitting back, the Devicer lifts a shoulder. "But it's definitely not the same as Device magic, and *way* not the same as Earth technology, so..." she pauses, and tilts her head. "......would it be okay if we bent your ear for awhile while we wait, Luna-san?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask steps out of the greenhouse into the main room, spots what's going on, spots Luna, pauses, and dramatically drops his henshin in a sliding-away of black silk. Mamoru's wearing a pale blue shirt under his leather jacket, and black jeans and

cowboy boots

He has come in on 'bent your ear for awhile', and -- "Private conversation or can I eavesdrop?" he asks with unabashed interest.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy jumps slightly in her chair and looks up. "Luna! It's been awhile." After she hops down, Amy holds out her hand in a wordless offer to pet.

    "We had kind of a lot of topic switches. Uhh. How did we get on this..."

    "...Right! We were talking about how there's different magic systems making spells and artifacts, because I was surprised Device magic can't scan data off of chips like this and that led to how are things for Chrono here and that led to different kinds of magic which got us to like, moon magitech which got us to trying to learn about magic when we were in the past which got us to Beryl and the apocalypse, which got us to where did all the people from the rest of the Solar System come from originally, and why weren't they restored by Saturn's... apocalypse... thing and only Earth was, but I guess stone age people would not have survived on those worlds so I hope they weren't."

    She looks to Rashmi. "...See, Moonlight Butterfly is catchier than Saturn's Apocalypse Thing. And Beryl really started the war because she wanted moon tech and not just because she was envious of Serenity's relationship?"

    She looks to Luna. "I'm also down for petting if that would be more comfortable than having your ear bent." She... tries to make a joke as if the ear bending were literal but doesn't quite land it.

    "Oh hi Mamoru! Not at all. Just uh... be very careful with--" Amy looks at the half of the PCB with the storage chip on it and then at Rashmi. "Is your Device the safest place to store something delicate when we're not working on it?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna butts her head up against Amy's palm, allowing for pets with all the calm reserve of a cat who knows she's indulging the wonderful humans. At the deluge of information from Amy, she nods thoughtfully, piecing the explanation together with the admittedly mixed bits she'd heard while dozing in the rafters, and decides, "Yes, that all makes sense. And I certainly don't mind answering questions - Usagi-chan knows a good deal about how the world once was, given that she was at Queen Serenity's side much of her past life, but how much she would be able to explain, well -"

She is much amused by and affectionate towards her princess. She knows her.

"You are welcome, Mamoru-san," she nods when he asks, glad that Amy has already explained. "But, I can reassure you at least, that those who remained to be caught in the wake of Sailor Saturn's fallen glaive were not doomed to rebirth on their respective planets. I quite suspect they've been reborn here, on Earth, scattered through time. Earth is the only planet in this Sol System capable of supporting life without intervention, you see. It is the place where those souls captured in Saturn's cycle of death and rebirth would naturally collect."

She pauses, then, the words having been somberly spoken, and they may recall that Luna and Artemis had survived to see the end of it, had been by the Queen's side as she cast her final spell.

"The Silver Millennium in it's shining hours... it was such a marvelous place... Queen Serenity brought her people here from far beyond this system," she explains. "They came for the same reason so many leave their homes - searching for a better life, a place of peace. What they found was the Earth, brilliant and shining and full of life, and the Moon - barren of life, but lit by the Sun and revolving about that living planet, and she and her people settled on the Moon, in what you now call the Mare Serenitatis, and built the first domed city that would become the Capital City of the Silver Millennium. This was some... ten thousand years before the fall."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Absolutely," Rashmi says. "You'll want to bag it up though; sometimes Nicomachea can't tell the difference between 'a handful of loose parts' and 'a handful of *individual* loose parts' and that can get... tetchy."

Even magical technology, after all, has limits.

As Mamoru peeks his head, in, Rashmi waves. "No come on in, we were just about to see if Luna-san was willing to tell us some stories!"

And tell stories she does. Oh, to hear of the Moon Kingdom in its prime... It's at once the most wonderful fairy tale she could possibly hear, and the most bittersweet tragedy that could exist. Because Rashmi *knows how the story ends,* and that casts a pall over her dreaming imagination. "But for ten *thousand years,*" she breathes, "and it was... *always* Queen Serenity?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru bows slightly to Luna in thanks, bright interest in his eyes. "Oh good," he says to the three of them, "I didn't want to disturb you, but then I heard you, Luna-san... I'd been going to teleport back out. I'm glad I didn't, I want to hear. And don't worry, I'm not coming near delicate stuff I'd break by looking at funny."

He bends down to get his bag out of a cubby, then goes to occupy a desk with his notebook and a pen. And he legitimately starts taking notes on storytime.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Uhh, have any spare bags on you? Oh, I guess we should be using the antistatic ones like hard drives come in... uh... I'll fetch some after this."

    "It's not that easy to break, it can probably be handled kinda roughly, I'm just being extra cautious given the importance of the data."

    Amy nods, a bit relieved, when Luna explains -- with an straightforward, logical explanation involving souls -- that anyone who 'would have been' reborn on the other planets, inasmuch as Rashmi and Amy were worrying there might have been such people, was instead reborn (or possibly yet to be reborn) on Earth.

    She listens with interest to the explanation that the Moon Kingdom and other Sol system colonies were settled by travelers from a distant star, who found the majesty of the Earth and the Moon and built a new home here some twenty-four-thousand years ago.

    "...Wait. So they came from outside the Solar System? Usagi's an alien alien?!"

    Beat.

    "Wow. Our lives are wild."

    Rashmi has a question, and Amy's eyebrows go up. She thinks of the future Serenity and Endymion she saw, after not quite a thousand years... They could live for another nine thousand at least if there's not another Death Phantom.

    How is poor Chibiusa going to follow that, when the time comes?

    "...Also... while I do want to hear about how it went, in the good times and all, I do just have to know:"

    "Where did they come from? Are there more colonies of the same civilization they left, around other stars? Or is this like, 'they got here after a 5,000 year cryosleep journey and no one knows what happened to the place they left' kinda deal?"

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta has been silent for a long while. If it weren't for the holographic displays around him, it might seem like he was just staring off into space, but in truth he's just in a lengthy telepathic discussion between himself and Paradise Spectrum.

    At some point it registers that his Device was brought up by name, along with scans, and he says, "Oh, right... the analysis of the thumb drive. Here's what we think it used to look like before it was damaged."

    He points to a hologram depicting the various fragments of the drive's casing. The image bends and 'un-crunches' as the pieces float closer together, before melting into one. "This is, of course, an educated guess at best. Sadly, reading data by scanning electrons is beyond the scope of what Paradise Spectrum is equipped to do. Wifi would be a bit more manageable, though..." he glances towards the destroyed stick. "... well, that's not really an option yet."

    It's then that he notices a cat and a gentleman. "Ah. Sorry, I was lost in thought. Didn't see you two come in."

    Apparently so lost that he responded to something he heard several minutes ago and has completely lost track of anything said recently. Paradise Spectrum is catching him up at least, because gathering data is what she's good at.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Many questions, from all around, but also, note-taking from Mamoru (she's always liked him for a reason!) and a break in the story to hear a young man Luna's not quite familiar with share a report on the items that Amy and Rashmi were studying, and she pauses to let him finish.

"It seemed that you were quite busy," she says in response to the apology, "And technically, we interrupted your activity. I am Luna, Sailor Moon's advisor. I don't believe we've met, but it's always nice to meet an ally of my princess."

Especially one who sounds so thoughtful and capable! If perhaps a bit spaced out. But then he was working!

"It was always Queen Serenity," she confirms, and then, before that can be a follow up - "And no, that wasn't the norm. The people of Crystal Tokyo, with their extended lifespans, are more akin to what the people of the Silver Millennium could live. I - well, I wasn't with the Queen all of those years - no one was, truly. She was the last of those who originally came to settle the Moon..."

She trails off for a moment.

"I don't know where she came from, originally. She never spoke of it, not that I can recall, and it was never immortalized. She and her people - they came from an event of great tragedy. They were not nomads by nature, as you might guess, given they settled widely, but decidedly on planets."

She stretches, big stretch, and turns bright but puzzled eyes on Amy.

"I am an 'alien alien' as you would put it. Mau is not within the Solar System... but Usagi - Princess Serenity - was born on the Moon. She and Prince Endymion were of the same age."

Which is a tragedy in and of itself. They were both so young.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
So Luna isn't so much a magical cat as a sentient alien from the second-possible-most-kittifyingly-named world in the Galaxy.

...Rashmi would be weirded out by this, but she regularly smooches an alien boy from *probably like five dimensions around the corner* so... It makes about as much sense as *anything does,* where magic is involved.

Don't ask if Mau architecture trends Egyptian...

"S-So," she finally says, when she can trust herself not to blurt out unhelpful questions, "if she put that much work into never talking about it... That alone says enough about the... *scale* of what she was escaping... That says enough to me."

As Souta speaks up, Rashmi manages not to jump *entirely* out of her seat... just the full-body flinch starting at her toes and crawling up to knock her glasses askew, shows her startlement. "Hi, Souta-kun! Yeah we weren't sure if you were working or napping or meditating or what so I was trying to put the actual casing back together. But that'll probably show any serial numbers better than I could manage, so thanks!"

Clearing her throat, she turns her attention back to Luna, to get story-time back on track. "And was it true, that the Moon tried to stay out of Earth business so it could grow on its own?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru sinks in his chair a little, grinning, when Amy asks Luna about Usagi being an alien alien. He *also* flinches strongly in surprise when Souta speaks up unexpectedly; his hand goes to his chest, eyes wide as his ratcheted-up pulse calms down. "Didn't see you there, hello, ...Inspector Camero."

No. Why would you say that. Mamoru ducks his head, huffing out a breath of a laugh at himself, then goes back to listening to Luna when she goes back to talking. They were both so young...

"We were! I think she was a couple months older than me. Or maybe I was a couple months older than her..." he says, reaching into his bag to pull out a bottled sports drink.

Two cents.

His face is somber at Rashmi's realization, despite her having to choke down some really hilarious questions. And Rashmi asks that, and Mamoru knows the answer, but he wants to hear the way Luna puts it.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is mildly surprised by Souta finally speaking up after this long, but decides that the delayed response isn't that weird and nods, "Thank you!" snapping a picture of the reconstruction. With her left hand. She's still slowly and steadily petting Luna with the other one.

    "...You're not at all surprised, huh? Did they have cat aliens-- I mean Mau aliens-- I mean intelligent species shaped like this where you come from? ...I guess Nanoha does have that ferret, huh..." Or person who turned into a ferret and got stuck? Or were-ferret? Or is she thinking of something else? Damn her memory, having a Device to help remember details that didn't seem important at the time must be nice.

    Luna answers questions. And at the last, Amy opens her mouth, but Luna clarifies that Mau does not orbit Sol before she can ask. She stares at Luna a moment, and nods.

    "I know she was, or would have assumed, anyway, but I mean... like. So Queen Serenity was an alien alien and she's the kid of... like it's just..."

    "I mean, there's life around other stars, and it's so like us. I wasn't sure Mau wasn't somewhere in the solar system, but other than you it's just... Kyubey, if he's telling the truth about that."

    She stares into the space above the table for a moment, considering the possibility of Mauian Puella Magi, or Puella Magi in the society Queen Serenity left. "A great tragedy, huh..." She remembers the shared vision of Kriemhild Gretchen, towering impossibly tall over devastation spreading across Earth...

    "...Were you born on the Moon? Or on Mau? Wait, everyone died... did..."

    Wide red eyes blink at Luna as words come out as fast as Amy thinks them. "Were you reborn as a cat? Or a human?" Her face shows that she's considering the ramifications of like. Some cat suddenly getting all those past memories like the Senshi did. Does Luna have a cat-mom somewhere? Or maybe she happened to be Usagi's pet cat before...?

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta reaches up to adjust his glasses as the adorable and very formal cat addresses him. As much as one might balk about all the strangeness on this planet, the idea of a talking cat doesn't even register as odd to him. Familiars are common in the TSAB. "A pleasure to meet you, miss Luna. I am Inspector Souta Camero of the TSAB, or at least I was. I'm sure by now I'm considered MIA."

    He refocuses his attention on the current topic around SilMil. He's read Chrono's reports, so he has some understanding of this topic, but hearing it directly from Luna is a bit different. The stories of fallen magical empires are always tragic. There's a reason why the TSAB usually considers Lost Logia to be a serious matter, after all. To hear that several were taken out by matters of jealousy both personal and political... It's honestly a miracle there's still any life here at all.

    Souta becomes aware and kindof apologetic about the fact that he's startled the heck out of a couple of people here. "Sorry..." he says, not wanting to belabor the point when there are more important topics to focus on. He waves to Mamoru, too. "Hello."

    To Amy, he nods and says, "Of course," as she snaps a picture of the recreation. Whatever helps with the investigation, well, that's what he's here for. As for the lack of surprise, he says, "Honestly we have a number of talking animals in the TSAB. Normally this happens because someone took a pet and gave them intelligence. I am... oversimplifying the process a lot, but it's not unheard of."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"So it did. And the people respected the queen enough that they chose to respect her silence, and the subject was not spoken of. There was so much else to speak of, instead. My understanding is those first several thousand years were very busy," her tone is rueful. "I wasn't there, of course - ah, no I was born on Mau, Artemis and I, and we came to the Silver Millennium, initially as ambassadors, but - well. You would have to ask Artemis for his reasons, but for me..."

She looks into the distance for a moment, lost in memory.

"The Silver Millenium was a marvel - the Moon itself a feat of magitech, perfectly controlled climates, domed cities across the surface of the Moon - but then, there were also the ancient forests of Ganymede and the wild, raging storms of Callisto, the frigid blizzards of Europa - so many of the moons of Jupiter were fully terraformed, grown up and expanded upon by the Jovians... and the queen herself was a brilliant woman. Decisive, clever, strong-willed, she was near-regarded as a goddess by her people, given that she was the oldest of them all, their stalwart leader, and yet, she was not arrogant. She understood the responsibility of power, of leadership."

She lifts her head, looking at Rashmi, then glancing at Mamoru, hiding her amusement at his behavior around 'Inspector Camaro'. She wrinkles her snout at the thought of intelligence provided to a pet, but is interested nonetheless to learn more of the TSAB's worlds.

"It was one of the two of you who was oldest, yes. I'm afraid I don't recall either - unless Usagi knows, it may be lost to memory. But what is not lost is this: yes, by the Queen's own order, the Earth was to be left alone, to grow and develop as it would. She found it's beauty, it's life, to be incredible, and she felt that intervening would unduly influence the Earth, lead to the recreation of one of her societies there, instead of the place it should have been."

A beat.

A sigh.

"...however, as Princess Serenity demonstrates, not everyone fully left the Earth to it's own devices. Many samples of plants, for example, were taken and hoarded and modified by people of the Silver Millennium. Jovians were a great fan of roses and oaks. That may not surprise you."

As Amy questions her birth, Luna hums and then stands abruptly, doing another big stretch.

"My, I do believe I hear Sailor Moon calling for me. She must be in some kind of trouble which only her trusted advisor can solve... goodbye for now, everyone!"

And she darts through the door with the speed and grace only a cat could manifest.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The more Luna talks about the Silver Millennium, the more Rashmi wishes she could have been there. Mamoru can see it on her face, there is a *deep and abiding need* to figure out how to throw a blanket over Pluto's head and hop twenty millennia back in time.

But some things will just have to be out of reach; for one thing, one suspects that Sailor Pluto would not react well to being burrito'd like an unhelpful cat.

"I mean... speaking as someone who lives here, *yeah I get it.* I'd probably have a hard time not doing the same, myself... But it's like I was telling Amy; the worst part is, what brought the whole thing to a close was that *one woman* was so small and jealous that she couldn't conceive of a world where the Moon wasn't pressing down on the Earth to keep them *beneath.* And she convinced others, because Earthlings have so much to recommend them... If they're not letting the small and jealous part of their hearts in the driver's seat..."

At which point Amy asks an honestly rude question, and Rashmi blinks owlishly as Luna gives what is perhaps the most believable transparent excuse ever. *Of course* Sailor Moon being in trouble means she has to go! It's genius! It's so genius that she makes a mental note to Nicomachea to keep that in mind the next time *she* needs a transparent and baldfaced excuse to be anywhere else.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's eyebrows lift; he jots down 'jovian roses?' as he listens to Luna and thinks about the overgrown gardens on the moon.

He glances toward the greenhouse, but then goes back to taking notes. That is, until Amy asks Luna a really actually personal question? Which... is... he'll just have to talk to her later. Or just show her later. Not right now.

Right now is for "HEY! That's my line!" Mamoru angry Kermit faces and shakes his fist after the vanishing space cat.

But also, his head tilts a little as he looks at Rashmi, thoughtful. He'll have to find out when her birthday is. Instead of asking that in public, though, he glances at Souta and lifts his eyebrows. "Like, uhh. Fenyx? Is that her name? Shoot..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's jaw drops at the news the moons of Jupiter were terraformed. But she's seen the space probe photos...

    Could they still be out there in some sort of side-dimension, like the Moon city?

    She closes her mouth as Luna goes on to describe the Queen, and Amy nods. Yes, she can understand why someone would follow her.

    Amy just innocently cocks her head to one side a little as Luna dodges the question. She doesn't read anything into it for certain more specific than that Luna doesn't want to answer the question right now. She shouldn't assume.

    Wow Luna left fast.

    "...Honestly, as a citizen of Earth, I'd rather we got more Silver Millenium than what we built left to our own devices. The Prime Directive is kinda bullshit." And then she remembers the Prince of Earth is right there and turns, awkwardly appending, "Although, maybe the Golden Kingdom would've made things so much better."

    But, there is something else she wonders, and can only ask Souta: "And... well now I'm curious, what's the TSAB's stance on the ethics of uplifting animals like that? Isn't it... making a person for a purpose? Or were they more like Intelligent Devices?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...we had plans, Serenity and I, and there were already-- some things in motion. Earth wanted to grow up and play in the big leagues, but not have anybody-- not be... subsumed. By the empire," he shrugs uncomfortably. "We were working on it. We didn't work fast enough."

He chugs some sports drink. "And Amy, you should ask Anko what it was like being a cat who couldn't talk," he suggests. "She started out as a regular cat, and, you know, IS a regular cat, she's just fundamentally more cat." He sticks his notebook in his bag and hauls himself up out of the desk, then takes his sports drink in his other hand. "Goodnight everybody. Sailor Moon needs cuddles and Luna's not enough."

Souta Camero has posed:
    Souta sees the speed at which Luna leaves and blinks. "Ah... I hope I didn't cause offense. How thoughtless of me." It wasn't until the words were out of his mouth that he realized that Luna might take offense to being compared to a pet. He probably could have phrased that better. Oops.

    "Fenyx?" he asks Mamoru. "I'm sure I've heard that name before but I'm afraid I don't remember."

    Amy asks her about the ethics of uplifting animals, and Souta has to clear his throat. "Well, it's... complicated. The moment you can communicate meaningfully with an animal, questions about things like consent take a much different shape. When you turn an animal to a Familiar, their life is linked to yours, and if you were to die then they'll likely either turn back into an animal or... die themselves, depending. Your magic sustains them, and it's a constant cost."

    "Sometimes this link is temporary, as part of a contract between you and the Familiar. Other times you just want to have another person around. The dynamics of the relationship change, but as long as they're a Familiar they have a mind of their own, and their loyalty and obedience are not guaranteed."

    He clears his throat and says, "One thing I should clarify though. While you might see yourself as the 'owner' of a pet, the pet does not necessarily see themselves as your property. They might instead see you as a family member, parental or guardian figure, or maybe a pack leader or boss... but generally you don't consider them chattel. It is expected that you treat them with respect."

    Mamoru mentions needing to cuddle his ~wifey~ and Souta just smirks and says, "Mood. Well, better get to it, then."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Fenyx is Chrono's Familiar," Rashmi supplies, nodding along with Souta's explanation. "It was before he'd found Lindy-mama, and he needed *some* kind of adult presence to deal with the school. So as I understand it, he kind of... stumbled over an exotic animal smuggler? And there was this poor bird who was really poorly treated, so... He offered her a contract. I don't think I've *ever* seen her get into a fight, but... I'm given to understand that combat protection is a common reason people have Familiars."

She pauses, frowns. "...I need to find a way to talk to Arf somehow," she murmurs. "She seems to be *really* loyal to Fate."

She blinks, and grins at Mamoru. "I mean, can't argue answering *that* call! Go cuddle your ~wife,~ we can hold down the fort here."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Souta hopes he didn't cause offense. "Huh? Why, what'd you say?"

    She listens curiously to the explanation of how he sees the ethical situation of Familiars. It sounds like there's hardly total consensus about it, but also the right concerns are there and known off the top of his head when asked of a mage who doesn't have one, so. Overall better than a lot of possibilities. She nods. "Mmh."

    She looks a bit surprised at Mamoru's suggestion. "I didn't think she... talked about topics like that. Yeah, I'd love to ask her!"

    And then he's hurrying off. "Oh uh, bye!"

    "Huh. Usagi's been suddenly needing her husband or cuddles a lot lately." Well, Luna did feel very soft to pet, but Mamoru's abruptly left twice in the last few days for apparently non-youma business. "Is something going on with her? I hope she's okay..." Hm.

Souta Camero has posed:
    "Oh!" says Souta, at Rashmi's reminder. "Ah, right. Sorry. Though... yes, that sounds about right. Having a Familiar around for something like that sounds like a fairly typical use case." He crosses his arms.

    Then when asked what he said that might have caused offense, Souta explains, "W-well... just because a person is a talking cat, that doesn't mean that they're the same as a Familiar. Apparently she's a member of a species of cat people, so my assumptions may have been a little insulting."

    He leans back against a nearby table and says, "Personally I could never have a Familiar. Paradise Spectrum would get too jealous."

    His glasses ping. < I am not that petty, Champ. >

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi can't help but chuckle at Paradise Spectrum. "Sure, you say that ~now,~" she says with a grin. "But seriously... I've given thought to a Familiar, but... I wouldn't feel right making *anyone* else take hits for me if I can help it." Given how she physically yeeted Pulp Noir out of the way of a devastating attack in front of Amy *and* Souta... that tracks.

Glancing after Mamoru, Rashmi shrugs. "Honestly... I'm pretty sure she's all right? But it's been a pretty wild month for a lot of people, so *I'm* not gonna question it."

With that, she starts to very carefully place the bag of thumbdrive-parts into Nicomachea's inventory, and after a quick check to make sure the bag continued to hold the bits in inventory... nods to herself. "I think... that's everything we can do today," she says, stifling a yawn behind her sleeve. "I'm gonna put the jar somewhere safe so other people can study it, and talk to Setsuchan about another Akihabara trip. G'night, you two!"