1454/Dimension Past: Riventon Helps

Dimension Past: Riventon Helps
Date of Scene:	23 April 2024
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	Desperate for help and apparently being owed a favor, Mamoru asks Riventon for help getting everybody back from the hell portal Beryl opened.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Takashi Agera

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
On a rooftop overlooking the plaza with the destroyed steps and patch of street, there's a masked and caped teenager, sitting on top of an HVAC with his feet dangling down. He is with a small black cat with a yellow moon on her forehead, and every now and then he glances down to the plaza where a different teenager stands guard, with a cooler.

Mamoru's actually mostly not texting. He's taken off his gloves and is sometimes texting, but mostly scritching.

He'll ask about the secret place after they part company with his brother.

Oh yeah-- and there's a great fuckoff big portal, all evil purple and red and black swirly light, down there in that ruined plaza. The kid standing guard is far enough away not to get sucked in. The fact that there's literally no rubble around the portal is a testament to its strength. It's like evil Kirby.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The black cat sitting on Mamoru's shoulder is also looking down at the portal, a distinctly displeased expression on her face as she does. She's sitting on Mamoru's shoulder, like a pirate's parrot only far cuter, her tail draped over his neck. Her ears are doing that slow swiveling thing that cautious cats do.

"Sharing the data with him will be necessary, but I do wish he was less well known for being so... grabby, about interesting technology. Giving him information on this worries me."

The him being Mamoru's brother, of course. She's not saying they shouldn't do it - she's just fretting, because her charges are largely stranded without her.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Mamoru - Tuxedo Kamen - will probably feel the other participant arriving before he sees him. As Takashi there's basically no Dark Energy signature to speak of, but as Riventon? Dark Energy is a part of him and his powers, and when he's flying (at high speed, to boot) and not just on foot, someone as in tune with the energies that should be on this planet can tell something that doesn't belong is coming. Though, it's possible Tuxedo Kamen knows and is less worried about this specific brand of 'doesn't belong'.

    Not too long aftedr that feeling occurs, the labcoat wearing scientist stops flying as his feet touch the rooftop, the energy signature dimming a bit. Now, of course, the only Dark Energy signature clear in the area is the one coming out of Evil Kirby down there. Riventon takes a few stops over and introduces himself by way of making a sort of uncomfortable whistle at the redblack swirlsphere as he looks at it.

    "That's a helluva thing." Riventon says. Axion is hard at work drawing data about exactly what kind of a thing it is, though. "I think she may have it out for you. At least she doesn't want you as a permanent office decoration. Though maybe that's... actually less bad." he says, hand on his hip as he stands up.

    "Do you know where it goes? Or when? It feels kinda temporal but kinda not." he asks.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I know, but..." Mamoru tells Luna, trailing off because he can, indeed, feel Riventon on his way. He doesn't slide off the HVAC to stand up, but he does put his phone away and let his other hand drop from petting Luna.

Little bit of a slide-turn, so Riventon's in his field of vision, and Tuxedo Kamen takes a thumb drive out from inside his jacket. "Don't know where or when, but Mercury was also saying it's temporal...ish. I haven't heard anything from her yet, but it's only been like ten minutes since they left and even beyond whatever they'll have to wade through, she'll still need to set things up. Or find out what she needs to, or..."

He waves the thumb drive around a little helplessly, then leans -- with one hand lightly on Luna -- to offer the thumb drive to Riventon. "I have a theory about where she sent them, and it's a rotten one, but... she said she was going to show them the glory of her victory, or something like that. She was loud but I'd already legged it away from where she could see me."

Then he sighs. "And yeah, she's fixated on me. I am who she's been looking for for years. She doesn't want me as an office decoration, just like... a decorative boyfriend, or something."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna is eyeing Riventon skeptically as they make the trade off, Mamoru's hand both keeping her in place and keeping her in place. It's not like he's done anything to her to be worth personally biting, but she's loyal, Luna is, and he has been trying to steal Wako's little robot friend. Advisors have to stick together! (Mascot is so demeaning.)

"I believe modern humans call them trophy husbands. And worse."

Settling the question of is the cat magic very firmly.

"I am Luna. From what I understand, you Riventon, are one of the more scientifically mindded of those in Obsidian's ranks?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon takes the thumb drive, and gives a sort of almost quasi-polite nod to the presence of the cat.

    "Well, I gotta say in confidence, since she isn't spying on me right now, I'm not exactly a fan of Tall And Creepy Lady getting pretty much anything she wants." he says, bluntly. He plays with the thumb drive, rolling it across his fingers. sort of 'dancing' it along them.

    "Well, as far as I can tell, time out here may not even match time in there, and there's no telling what way it works. It's sorta like how the Dusk Zone doesn't perfectly map to this side." he notes. "That's just a theory, though. I'd have to check manually and I feel like sending all of the really magic-smart folks over the divide isn't the best strategy."

    "Obviously I could do more with information from both sides but... mph. I need...a drone or something." Riventon mumbles. He starts looking around the rooftop and grumbles.

    After a moment he starts fishing around in The Labcoat Of Many Things, pulling out what are essentially high-tech bits and bobs, but he's putting them together with Dark Energy instead of something more permanent. Then he turns to Luna, in reply to her question.

    "Chiba-san, have you been underselling me so? I am deeply, perhaps even mortally wounded." he says, putting a hand over his heart. "Anyways, glad to meet your acquaintance, Luna. I'm Riventon, and simply put, I am the most intelligent human currently alive - maybe ever but I lack the data to do more than believe that."

    "I started saying 'human' because if I didn't, Sunbreaker would get annoying about it." he explains to Mamoru as an aside.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru just-- sighs, then laughs, shaking his head. He looks less distraught by a far margin than he did when Luna found him, and also from when everyone else left, and Riventon's easy self-hype is also, bizarrely, a relaxing familiarity.

"I haven't been underselling you, it's just that a measure of unqualified 'intelligence' is something not even theoretically possible with the modern models of human neuropsychology, and besides, define 'human,'" he says with cheerful diplomacy. He wants to go back to scritching Luna, but he doesn't want to deprive her of any dignity in front of Riventon. "Are you making a drone? You might want to also set up some temporary unmanned sensors up here for when you have to do other stuff, in case anyone else goes through while you're not here to take readings. That was something I was kicking myself about a little, but I didn't want anyone thinking you were here on Beryl's behalf if you showed up before they left. The one tether I can think of, though--"

Here Mamoru pauses, glancing down at the portal again and pursing his lips, silent for a second before continuing, "--is me. Because of that psychic link where I can tell they're okay. That may or may not be a helpful angle. I'm also going to ask a couple of other people to work on this, because there are a lot of different *types* of intelligence..."

He only sounds a little bit trolly.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"If anything, all he's undersold is your ego," Luna says dryly, "Though the greatest human genius on this planet is Sailor Mercury, so you'll have to settle for number two."

Should she antagonize him? No, but she won't fail to represent her girls, either!

"Sensors would be an excellent starting point, and Kamen-kun, your psychic link may well be a very helpful angle. I've never asked to study how your ability works, but if we can gather some data on that, as well as how your range works, we may be able to see how great of a factor that tie could be to retrieving our lost companions. And Sunbreaker."

That girl might be an excellent scritcher, but she's messier than a fruit pie and often decidedly against her dear charges. She does not get to be counted among the companions!

"A drone is an excellent idea, though given the nature of your material, it may come into unique... difficulties."

Dark Energy didn't always react well to other kinds of magic, in her experience...

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Mmm, I guess that's fair. I can't really define human so casually anymore." Riventon admits. At the same time he's got something that looks kind of like a tiny, angry osprey (the twin-rotor flying vehicle, not the bird) that is about fist sized. It's at *least* as full of Dark Energy as Riventon was when he was flying, so it's probably more 'magical youma with tech bits' than 'suddenly-built-on-the-spot-techndrone'. It leaves his hand and flies into the swirly temporal rift-thingie.

    He turns to Mamoru. "Just don't tell me you buy that 'moral intelligence' nonsense." he adds, quite seriously. "But anyways, it's alright. It's a fair deal to worry about me in regards to Beryl. She is my boss." He notes. "Speaking of, please don't make me injure people when the next one of the crystals shows up. I've no desire to be Beryl's latest modern art installation. If I don't bring back at least one - well lets just say somebody is getting a promotion. And it isn't me."

    He turns to Luna. "Huh. That's funny, I don't recall Sailor Mercury working for Obsidian." he says, nonchalantly. "But I can see why you might think that, even from my limited interaction with her, girl's got huge intellect." he notes. "But no Dark Energy so she's just crippling herself which isn't very smart at all. So... 9/10 at best."

    "Anyways yeah I should move one of my stations closer. The portal-sphere thing down there is putting off all kinds of wild energy readings and it's kind of distorting the real truth of the matter on anything from a distance. Like magical chaff."

    "Can't do it now though, if you see it you'll tell the sparklesquaddies what to look for and I have to keep my trade secrets. I'm here to help because I owe you a bit of help and you're kind of my brother and all so I suppose I don't want you sad over people trapped in some sort of temporal distortion, but otherwise the only person I'd be bringing back here is Sunbreaker."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm not getting in the middle of this genius argument, because I'm wise," says Mamoru, scootching back a little ways on the HVAC, then leaning his head briefly against Luna's warm fuzzy self.

Then he nods at Luna's comments on his range and how the links work, and nods again, more firmly, when she brings it back around to the fact that it might help. "Good. We can do that later. If there's any relevant data, we can share that, too..."

He watches as the little dark energy youmadrone angry osprey zizzes into the portal, then looks back at Takashi and grins. "That was cool. You're also laterally and vicariously satisfying my natural human urge to sail paper airplanes into it."

His voice lowers a little. "You already have one," he says. "I don't want to argue about it right now, but we can for sure argue about it civilly later. I just want to get everyone back first. So-- thank you. And do you want a sheet to put over your sensor station so we can't see it?"

He's grinning again, but it fades, and he says very seriously, "Thank you, for really real. Among a lot of other people I care about, both my girlfriend and my boyfriend are in there. I'm a little lost."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Moral intelligence certainly factors into wisdom," Luna says tartly, and then subsides, watching the drone vanish into the rift. She's not entirely sure what will happen... so they might as well witness it, right? And - as much as she wants to defend Sailor Mercury's status as an 11 among 8s-who-believe-they-are-10s... it's not productive.

Obsidian is full of prisoners who think themselves free, idiots who think themselves wise, and Dark Energy users who lie to themselves about the effects of what they've done to themselves. She could argue with him for days, but in the end; he doesn't matter, and her Senshi (and their friends) do.

And there's no point in saying that he could easily avoid Beryl's wrath by leaving Obsidian - both because it's not entirely true, and because if he were willing to do so, it would already be done.

"I would recommend you advise your fellows not to follow after any who entered the void. There's no reason to add to the lost... not when a number of construction workers have already added themselves to the list."

Meanwhile, the drone is giving back no data. It's all just - blank. It will probably take a few minutes to even hope to receive something, though.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Never said I was the wisest human." Riventon notes, bluntly. There are some lines he won't cross even in pursuit of self praise, and apparently that's one of them. "Sometimes, scientific progress requires somebody to be the one who shrugs, and licks the strange chemical." he says, shrugging as he says it as if to emphasize that he is often that one. "That's how we got Aspartame, not just a random example."

    "Look, I want to focus on getting your friends back - boys, girls, other cats, whatever - so for the Crystals, all I'm going to say about that is one: I don't have one and two: if I did have one and didn't provide it to Beryl, it wouldn't do me any good because I couldn't be like 'oh just kidding I kept one from you' so it's really neither here nor there whatever you think. Shouldn't change your calculus."

    "Oh, the sensor station? Nah, I'll just get some Sunackeys to move it closer or something while we chat. It's not super relevant while I'm here since the data I'm pulling off Axion is still miles ahead of anything I can pull with earth-tech." He notes.

    Then he turns to Mamoru. "Look, as long as your psychic link is up, and you know they're alive, we can get them back here, so don't stress out too much. They're just on a time vacation. It's not even like they were dragged to the Dusk Zone." he says. "Though I am bothered my drone is doing a fat lot of nothing. But this isn't something I've encountered before. And don't worry, most of Obsidian is too wise to go near anywhere Beryl was angry." He, of course, is the exception.