360/Back-Alley Aftermath

Back-Alley Aftermath
Date of Scene:	03 September 2023
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	In the aftermath of Digital Divide, Rashmi heals Greta just enough to wake the poor girl up, whereupon Greta needs answers to big questions she has. Rashmi has... most of them. What isn't confusing, also isn't pleasant.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Greta Legend

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Rashmi Terios has posed:
==> Three Blocks Away From The Explosion <==

In a back alley sandwiched between two office buildings, a magical circle sketched in yellow light slowly revolves on the ground, discharging weak, but effective healing energy upward into the two girls within its boundaries. One is yet unconscious, and the other seems to be trying very, very hard not to cry. She's managed to tamp it down to 'silent tears,' but there is a *lot* of panic and worry going on in her head.

Most closely; Greta was hurt much worse than Rashmi was, and Rashmi is going to be *miserable* getting home even after the spell runs its course. Is the best she can do even going to be enough?

Greta Legend has posed:
Perhaps the consolation to Rasmi's worries is that Greta's Intelligent Device is actively keeping the girl posted on Greta's condition. <*ksh*Linker core at 36%, and improving.*ksh*Thank you for assisting Little Red. She is...*ksh*headstrong*ksh*> Despite being functional, the device clearly has some manner of problems. Perhaps some salvage from the ship chunk might be able to improve its condition, but it really needs a Meister to get a good look at it.

It's around this point that Greta's eyes flutter open, her barrier jacket pretty shredded, as she blinks. "Au... Was ist passiert?" She first utters in German shaking the cobwebs out and a bit and switching to Japanese, "That... Where the woman... where did she go?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"She probably got away," Rashmi says wetly, followed by a sniff and a good-faith attempt at wiping her face. "Chrono-kun's strong, but... He's been recovering for *days,* and he was just barely strong enough to pick a *little* fight." Taking off her glasses, the dark-skinned redhead digs the tears out of her eyes with the heel of her hand, then turns her head to face Greta, giving the blond a shaky smile. "That... wasn't a little fight. I'm sorry, but that woman was *going* to kill us, and apparently she's a big-time wanted criminal in *space.* The kind you don't send *one* person to try to arrest."

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta squints a bit as she tries to process everything she just heard, and pushes herself into a sitting up position, "Chrono..? Who?" Before grabbing her device and pushing herself up to a standing position, albeit wobbly. "Nggh, Diese Kuh und ihre Peitsche..."

After a moment of VERY Clearly cursing, she gets her balance and switches back to Japanese again, "Wanted Criminal... from -space-? What the bloody hell are you talking about..? What was that space ship? What the bloody hell WAS everything that happened yesterday!?"

<*ksh*The ship was the Artha, from which---> The device begins explaining.

Greta grits her teeth, "Yes, Dreiseelen, but you didn't explain what THAT meant!"

<*Ksh*Apologies, Little Red. My several of my functions have been damaged, including much of my memory.*ksh*>

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"It's still the same day," Rashmi says first, with a quiet, shaky moment of laughter. "I don't have *good* healing magic, but... it works pretty okay."

Sniffling again, Rashmi shakes herself out of whatever internal misery she'd been mired in, and looks at the buildings around them. "So I'd love to tell you all about it, but um... Let's go someplace a little less alley-y? C'mon..." She holds out her hand, as the circle beneath them fades. The wings at her ankles flutter, as if signaling her intent should Greta take her hand.

"It's still afternoon, but rooftops are still better than alleys, right? And don't worry, Dreiseelen," she says directly to the axe. "Turns out? I know someone who can probably fix up your Core."

Greta Legend has posed:
"... Today.. Right... Bugger, how long was I out?" Greta mumbles, before shaking her head, and eying the offered hand, "It's fine... I can fly." She states cooly as she direct her will to the magics that allow it to happen, her cape flicking into a wing-like state that she uses to push herself up into the air.

Once they get up to the rooftops, Greta lands with a bit of a wobble, gritting her teeth. "Bloody..." She takes a breath before looking to Rashmi, "Right... So what did I get myself into -really-? I thought this Magical girl stuff was going to be just fighting monsters. Now it's -definitely- people?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
At this, Rashmi just lets out a breath of air in a long, slow sigh. "Okay," she says, lifting off slowly at first to allow Greta to catch up, then making for the roof of one of the buildings they had been huddling between. "So let's start with our Devices... They're basically alien supercomputer-weapon things. Dreiseelen mentioned the Arthras, which... was the chunk of the spaceship that landed. I don't... really get the physics of it, but I know enough pop-science to know that time is a dimension too, and when that ship was destroyed? It blew up *in time.* Apparently Nicomachea came from there too, and he says he's been on-planet for like thirty years?"

The redhead manages a shrug, as she touches down on an HVAC unit atop the building.

"...So that's the start. Both of us managed to stumble into alien science-magic from the wreck of an alien space navy ship."

Greta Legend has posed:
The blonde is doing her level best to process the information that is being provided to her, as she squints a bit, "Alien supercomputers? That's a bit more of a stretch than I really bargained for... Bugger me..." Greta complains, before looking back to her device, which has by this point reverted to a rod form to stand-by in. "My mother gave you to me when I was little..." She starts to grill Dreiseelen. "Are you telling me that she knew about you being a supercomputer thing?"

<*ksh*Negative. Mistress Nadja Legend*ksh*did not know. Last activation was by Mistress*KSH*Hilda Jäger, local calendar date March 13th, 1673.*ksh*>

Greta blinks at that bit of information, before shaking her head, "-What-?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi gestures to Dreiseelen at the date. "Yeah... there you go. Like I said, the ship blew up in *time,* it seems like Dreiseelen was ejected further than most everything else. Imagine a car exploding, but then a mirror from the car lands four blocks away. Not... likely, but not impossible, y'know?"

"...Which brings me to Chrono-kun," she says, turning to look at the hazy point where the explosion has... mostly... settled, just a couple rooftops over. "He was serving on the ship. He's an Enforcer, and I guess the only person he was under in authority, commanded the ship? He and everyone else on the ship got out all at the same time... But I guess magic works differently in space than it does here. Turns out here, adults can't *have* magic. They forget, if you're too old. Except Chrono-kun, because he's just *so good* at magic that he was serving when he was young."

Rashmi looks over her shoulder at Greta, and her eyes are a touch haunted. "And if you forget magic exists when you're too old, I'm kind of terrified of what happens when magic has been *everything you know for your whole life,* and now you can't remember any of it."

Greta Legend has posed:
That revalation gets at Greta for a bit, as she thinks long about that particular circumstance, of adults not being able to retain magic, before shaking her head, "Wait... That makes no bloody sense... What about that lady that..." She cuts herself off a moment, not wanting to say the word.

<*kshBodied you, Little Red.*ksh*> Dreiseelen helpfully fills in.

Greta narrows her eyes, "I did not ask for your input..." Growling at the device, before looking back to Rashmi, "How was she going full Thunderbolts and Lightning, Very Very Frightning, if adults can't do magic?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"That is a *really good question* that I have *no idea how to answer,*" Rashmi says, throwing up her hands. "All I know is *before* she came here, I guess she was a *super wanted criminal,* and the only person with any authority *to* arrest her was walking-wounded and *at best* half-empty with a damaged Device, and *he* was outclassed and *I don't even know if he's still alive and I *just got him walking around--*"

Oh good, we've hit panic-meltdown levels of worry.

Greta Legend has posed:
"Oi." Greta, for all her own confusion and being in over her head, isn't completely blind to Rashmi's own worry, tries to get her to calm down a bit directly by stepping up to her and raising her device to give Rashmi a gentle knock upon her forehead. "Panicking does nobody any favors. Take a breath and calm down."

How's she being the voice of reason and calm right now?

"So what the bloody hell was everything else? What's a 'TSAB'? Or an Obsidian? Everyone was throwing those words around."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"--and if he's dead how am I supposed to te--"

*donk*

"..." Blinking away the shock, she turns to stare at Greta as her brain, knocked out of the panic spiral, goes back to reasserting coherence. Nodding slowly, she takes in a long, deep breath, and lets it out, *extremely* shakily.

"...Sorry... Okay... so... The TSAB." The glasses come off completely now, as Rashmi scrubs at her face for a moment to organize her thoughts.

This is a chore.

Thus, Nicomachea decides to take over.     << THE TIME-SPACE ADMINISTRATIVE BUREAU. THE GOVERNMENTAL SECURITY ARM OF AN ALLIANCE OF NEARLY A HUNDRED WORLDS ACROSS EXPLORED TIME-SPACE. ITS JURISDICTION EXTENDS OVER WORLDS KNOWN BUT NOT ADMINISTERED BY THE BUREAU, INCLUDING UNADMINISTERED WORLD 94, DESIGNATION 'Earth.' THE ARTHRA IS DESIGNATED AS AN L-CLASS INVESTIGATIVE SHIP, ITS MISSION TO TRACK, UNCOVER, AND DETAIN THREATS TO ADMINISTERED AND UNADMINISTERED WORLDS. >>

This explanation, the book illustrates by emitting a revolving hologram of the Arthra as it looked when it was launched.

"Thanks, Nico," Rashmi sniffles, then clears her throat. "Obsidian... Well I mean, until today all I knew of them was they were a corporation. But if all those people everyone was fighting are *with* them, and they were *scavenging* the Arthra... I'm not so sure they're *just* a corporation anymore."

Greta Legend has posed:
Greta nods slowly as she listens to the explanation, eyes on the hologram of the Arthra for the while that it is displayed, absorbing the information to the best of her ability, "So... When you say Earth is 'Unadministrated', you mean because we haven't reached that point technologically, I guess? So instead we just have magic and monsters... Bloody weird..."

There is a pause as the mention of Obsidian the corporation was mentioned, and Greta blinks a while, as if making a connection mentally, before shaking her head, "No... No, that's mental... Obsidian is just a big company, and these bad guys are just using the name because it sounds evil." There is a hint of denial in her voice.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Um... think of it more like 'NATO countries' and 'not-NATO countries,'" Rashmi says, hesitantly. "I'm pretty sure there's worlds that *do* deal with time-space, but aren't part of the TSAB." Sighing, she starts to clean off her glasses.

"Greta-chan," she says gently. "Before this? An Obsidian company put out this thing, a Black Jade. It's like a home-assistant gadget, but at a giveaway in Clover Tower? This *monster* just *blasted through* dimensions from wherever it lived, it was terrifying. And during the cleanup, Obsidian made sure that every... last... gadget... was taken away to a warehouse. When some of us followed the trail back? There was this guy, who almost beat like five of us, on his own."

Replacing her glasses, the redhead slumps in place, shrugging. "So that's, what... *six?* freakishly powerful people, all connected to obsidian, and some of them are pulling in monsters. And then there's the other random people, *also* summoning monsters in. And then there's just the regular monsters that show up. And, and, and..."

Greta Legend has posed:
"Probably a coincidence..." Greta puts on her own glasses and shakes her head, "Obviously it's some secret organization using Obsidian as a decoy... Yeah..." She glares at Rashmi, "Look, everyone wants to say the bloody megacorp is evil, but that's just explaining away all the bad stuff that happens."

She then turns and looks towards the edge of the roof. "Look, until there's some actual proof, I'm not going to just call them actually evil."

<*ksh*Little Red, consider the possibility. There have been a number of incidents surrounding Obsidian. The is a possibility that--> Dreiseelen chrips up.

"No there -bloody- isn't, Dreiseelen!" Greta yells to her device, quite angrily. "There IS no possibility, so -shut up-!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Hey, hey," Rashmi says, taking her turn as the voice of reason, now that she has the mental ability to. "A *possibility* isn't the same as a *certainty.* I'm not gonna run around and assume *everything's* Obsidian's fault, and you shouldn't either. But there's pretty clear evidence *something's* going on there, so... Keep an open mind, either way, is all I'm asking."

Reaching out, she puts a hand on Greta's shoulder. "Can I help, Greta? Cos we're in this together, and you're my friend. If I can help... I want to."

Greta Legend has posed:
At the hand upon her shoulder, Greta reflexively jerks away, "I -never- said anything about being friends. We're just working together to fight the bad guys and the monsters to keep them from hurting people. That's -it-." It's a cold response, but it's as if her heart is about 90% into it.

She hears a buzzing on her phone, which she pulls from her pocket to take a quick glance, "Tch... My father's trying to get a hold of me... Apparently there was an explosion here..." She blinks, "Did the ship chunk blow up while I was out?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
When shaken off, Rashmi raises her hand placatingly. "Okay," she says, willing to roll with the declaration. "That's fine, I understand. But--"

And Greta asks if the ship blew up, and worry crawls back over her face. "...Yeah," she says, much more quietly. "I don't know why, but..." she waves her hand at the dust cloud a couple blocks over. "I only felt the explosion while I was getting you to safety. It's... why I'm worried. I don't *know* what happened to my *other friends.*"

Greta Legend has posed:
"Oh... Oh..." Greta finally realizes part of problem, "I... Am sure they're fine..." In an effort to give some reassurance, before turning again, "I'm going to go... I'm sure they got out."

She looks down to the streets, and a pause as she looks out towards Clover tower, and then says, "Take care of yourself." Dialing back on her coldness it seems, but not enough to go for a friendly departure, and she drops down to the streets, and once she's down there dismisses the Barrier Jacket at last.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
A small, sad "You too..." follows Greta down off the building, and for a while Rashmi simply sits there, on an HVAC box, watching the smoky dust dissipate in the late-evening sky.