694/A Word Among Letters

A Word Among Letters
Date of Scene:	02 November 2023
Location:	Dorms #3
Synopsis:	Usagi and Setsuna get read (hahaha) in on the cipher Naru and Mamoru have been working on from Nephrite's journal. Secrets are desperately kept, then shared anyway.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Setsuna Meiou, Naru Osaka

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's Naru and Usagi's dorm room: at this time of day, normally, only Naru would be there -- but today, Darien Shields is also here, and they've got a book, a bunch of paper, pencils, phones, and a laptop on Naru's desk, with Usagi's and Naru's desk chairs pulled up to it. There's coffee. There are cranberry-lemon muffins. Luna is not present. It looks like any reasonable study session.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's light and power and noise and the swish of a takeout bag, and then the empty whiteness of the Gates of Time are gone, and Usagi Tsukino is actually in her dorm room, Setsuna Meiou (or Sailor Pluto, really, was it up to her to decide?) at her side. Her dorm room is not empty.

This is a pleasant surprise.

"Naru-chan! Mamo-chan! Good to see you!"

Papers may have been slightly thrown about by the power of Sailor Teleport, Time Gate edition.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
For those sensitive enough to magic, the air in the room begins to get thick and heavy with the feeling of building magic.

The effect lasts for a few moments...then a spot of light manifests on the floor in the middle of the room not too far from the whiteboard.

Said spot quickly blooms out to a large, intricate circle of light that appears to be a summoning circle of some kind. There's script written in it, but given that it's written in the normal dialect of the Silver Millenium, only a few people living can read it.

However, a sharp eye WILL spot three astrological symbols in the mix...the crosed circle of Earth, the sideways crescent of The Moon, and the combined capital PL of Pluto.

And then Usagi and Setsuna Meiou appear, the latter in an odd, armored outfit that she's been seen wearing around school this week appear, the Nurse holding a large, ornate staff with a heart ring and gem on it's top.

Naru Osaka has posed:
The summoning circle caught Naru's eye and she watched a few moments.. curious.. at least until there was breezes and a bit of woosh.

Not THE PAPERS! Naru acks slightly as the light and noise provide a breeze and the first instinct is for her free hand to dart out and slap down on the papers, fingers open wide so nothing goes flying.

Only then does Naru twist and look over at the new arrivals. "Hey Usagi and.. " Naru considers a moment, even if she's met Setsuna before. "Setsuna."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
That's not alarming or anything. (That's ALARMING.) By the time Usagi and Setsuna finish teleporting in, Mamoru's got the book from the desk clasped against his chest, eyes wide. But as soon as Usagi's visible, he starts relaxing, though he's still more than a little confused that the school nurse is apparently a magical girl.

"Usako... and... Meiou-san?" he asks hesitantly, still hugging the green-covered book. "Hi..." He looks at Naru and then Usagi like 'is this okay??'

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Hi! Sorry about the papers, I didn't even know we could do that until five minutes ago!"

She's kind of jazzed by success and also the sight of two of her favorite people. Food is stored away in the mini fridge in their room, Usagi abandoning Setsuna to their stares. "I was giving Setsuna-san Mercury-chan's computer, since she said she might need it to help with everything. Whatcha doing?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna blinks around the room, and upon spotting the young man there, she narrows her eyes a bit and shifts her grip on her staff...and then Usagi calls out to him...and she visibly relaxes, even if she looks a bit bemused, "Well, this isn't TYPICALLY how I'm introduced to people, but it's nice to meet you again, Miss Osaka..."

She then turns and looks at the young man, "...and a pleasure to meet you, Mister Shields."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Okay.. that is epic cool." Naru lifts her hand and goes back to drinking coffee. "Can you do that from like anywhere?" She asks of Usagi as if this is a perfectly reasonable way to have two people just APPEAR in their room.

"The kettle should be hot, I just made a fresh coffee not /that/ long ago."

Naru mmms at Usagi's question. "Mystical math homework. Darien's helping me with some theories that might work on those cyphers."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"We're uh-- I found--" Mamoru keeps looking at Setsuna's staff, and at her face, and at Usagi, and he's... "Ah, you as well, Meiou-sensei." He glances to Usagi again, then to Setsuna, and then he stares at Naru. "Mercury's computer..."

He takes a breath, then, and finally stops hugging the notebook, though he doesn't put it back down. "Would it be all right," he says in a voice that sounds startlingly resigned, "if we asked Chrono and Rashmi to do it instead of using Mercury's device? Or do you just need the cipher? Because if you're working on something else of Neph's, I have the key."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
See, Usagi was actively nervous about the fact that Mamoru and Naru are clearly not doing regular homework (neither Naru or Mamoru NEED study help for their regular homework) but she wasn't going to bring it up if they didn't! Her goals were to make it absolutely clear that Setsuna is In The Know so Mamoru could decide how much he wants to have known.

It's probably unfair, but she didn't decide her room should have people in it, and the teleporting kind of makes it obvious that Setsuna-san is magic. Mamochan, on the other hand, could totally still be normal if he wanted. His choice.

Normal on paper.

"Setsuna-san says if we have four of us we could do it together, but I dunno the limits; we were in a super cool other dimension." She will not elaborate. The Gates of Time are Setsuna's domain, so she could decide if people find out about them or not.

She does frown a little at her boyfriend's tone, and his resigned explanation. "All this spy stuff is over my head, but I think the cypher is probably the important thing? But how'd you get the cypher, I thought we were all stuck on part 'are these words? maybe, probably, could be?'"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna turns and looks around the room, notes the whiteboard, "...oh, I've had a few of THESE in my time..."

Then she hears Naru mention the cypher, "...I hope you do better than I did. Cryptography isn't anything I have any skill with. We're hoping the Mercury Computer can do more...it SHOULD know the script already, which will be a help...then it will be just a matter of how long it takes to break the cypher."

At Darien's question, she blinks, "You're acquainted with Mister Harlown and Miss Terios?"

She steps slightly closer...the Garnet Rod having disappeared from her hand at some point when nobody was looking, "They HAD offered, but I was unsure which route would work better."

She then looks over at Usagi and raises an eyebrow before turning back, "Well, Mister Shields, Usagi-chan and Miss Osaka seem to trust you...and you're already aware of Miss Terios and Mister Harlaown...and I get that you're rather key here, so for your fund of information, I am Sailor Pluto."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm pretty sure Chrono has met as many, possibly more people, than I have. He's adorable, has no chill, but is an excellent information source. Rashmi is adorable, and brilliant." Naru sips her coffee, twisting to be able to lean in her chair with her back against her desk.

"The cypher is a pain in the arse, and slow, but doable now that we have a touch more information." Naru holds up a hand. "Unnamed sources, etc etc, but more information. It means we can probably crack the words on the map before we know the language." She glances sidelong at Mamoru, her expression a touch wry and a hint of apology.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"--ah," says Mamoru, eyes wide again. "Well. Then. You can call me Mamoru Chiba." Like Usagi's name, it's a somewhat terrible pun, but meaningful. "But not in school generally, please, Pluto-san. It's complicated."

Very.

He glances toward Usagi and Naru again, then reaches over to the desk and picks up one of the printouts of Naru's phone picture of the cipher. "This is it, a multilayered encryption that uses astrological magic connection points and astronomical calculus."

Then he shrugs at Naru and looks apologetically at Usagi before looking back to Pluto. "Usako trusts you. I can't, entirely, I'm sorry. I know the language that's underneath the encryption, and I don't think anyone else besides Nephrite does. And maybe one other person. Who would... I don't know what she would do to me if she found out I was helping. But Neph--" so familiar "--put the cipher somewhere only I could find it, and he knows I'm... not..."

He trails off.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You should never underestimate the number of people Naru knows," Usagi says with audible satisfaction and pride. Her roommate! The most inquisitive person she knows! Meets everyone! "And Mamochan knows a lot of people too."

Of course she knows Rashmi and Chrono. And of course Mamochan has important information too... and...

"Darien," and she uses that name as a specific reminder, "Has to be a secret for this. He's helping us at a lot of risk to himself, so we have to make sure no one ever hears he did help us."

She's really rolling with the punches here, because she had no idea that Mamoru could help at all! "But, Setsuna-san is pretty good with secrets. I know you can't trust her, but I trust that she'll keep it a secret that you're working with us on - all of this. Especially since you're the most important piece, because you know the langauge!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna raises a hand, "Well, we might be in luck there. I should be able to read the language. I recognize the script, at least. It's an Earth Kingdom language I can read...but I'll grant...it's been a while.

She then turns to Mamoru and gives him a little grin, "I think we all here understand the nature of multiple names and complicated lives."

At Mamoru's continued explaination, she frowns a bit, then sighs, "I understand, I think. Things have been even more complicated than would even have been normal for such as ourselves BEFORE recent events."

A hand is waved at Mamoru, "In any event, you seem to be navigating a rather...complicated road...and it kind of sounds like your friend is supporting your endeavor here, even if he's having to be subtle about it."

At Usagi's re-iteration about how much danger Mamoru could be in, Setsuna looks over at her and gives her a very intense, questioning look, then sighs and says, "...and if you ever find yourself having to bug out from someone with a long reach...let Usagi-chan know..."

She sighs, "...I have someplace I can stash you for a little while where I can reasonably guarantee NOBODY will be able to find you."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Alright.. so now that we've covered that there's a lot of doing this on the sly.. who are we handing what to?" Naru gestures between the pack of them. "Map and copy of the code to Chrono and Rashmi? Keeping things out of Mercury's system for added safety?"

Trust the project manager to aspire to keep things organized.

Naru glances to Mamoru. "Our project, we can continue to do the old fashioned way."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm not the most important piece," Mamoru half-mumbles a protest in Usagi's direction, but his ears are also a little pinker than they were a moment ago. His shoulders also relax a little at Usagi's support of him-- he'd never question that, but it's good to hear it in the moment, too, always.

"Thank you," he says to Setsuna, relaxing a little bit more now that she's also shown understanding, even if he looks a little bit dubious at her claim to know the language. Only a little. "I have people I need to get out before I can run. But if it comes to it, I will." A beat. "It'll probably come to it."

He looks to Naru. "For now. There might be some things in there that are necessary to read before 2025. But I still have to sleep on it. If there's a map with this cipher on it and Pluto-san can't read it, I'll translate for you."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I think - maybe Naru-chan and Mamochan, you two keep up your special math project, and if we have something that will help - like if you can make enough cypher - then maybe Setsuna-san could use the Mercury computer to get a machine translation running through?"

She's used those before - machine translations weren't always the most accurate, but they tended to get the general gist across, right?

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Mamoru's comment about people he needs to get out gets a sigh and a compassionate look from Setsuna, "...you, me, and several other people, it seems. I'm already doing things to help those I can and trying to lay groundwork for others."

She thinks for a few moments, then smiles a bit, "...when the time comes, get me as much information as you can on those you're making a run with...I've got some contacts that I can use to have some false identities made if we need them."

A nod is given, "Then I'll get a copy of the file we already have to Chrono-san and Rashmi-chan and I'll let S2 and Nicomachea start chewing on it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Alright. I can pass the pieces on to Chrono and Rashmi, unless someone else is burning to do it, and we'll get THAT part of the puzzle started." Naru confirms with everyone with a nod.

She listens to the plans for future extractions, but does not comment, at least not right now.

"Think on it, Mamo. There's no rush. We'll get this bit done, that's a whole separate issue, and then our project we can get to when we get to it." Naru nods to him, her smile gentle.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi doesn't have anything else to say, in this moment, but, her heart is feeling very full, to see Setsuna offer - not just consider, but offer - to hide Mamoru at the Gates of Time, that place that has so much meaning for her.

It makes her feel a little silly, for her previous lack of trust - but it also makes her feel confident that she'll need to tell Mamoru something, about this offer, to make sure he knows that if it comes to that, they'll have to be honest about everything.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Naru actually gets a shoulder-hug for that, and Usagi gets a nod-- and then...

"..." Mamoru takes his glasses off to rub at his eyes with the back of his wrist, then uses his knuckles instead when he accidentally hits his "bracelet" against his face. "Rashmi knows my other name. So if she wants to know who it came from, and she might have to know before she can trust it..."

He looks up again, and eyes the color of the Earth's oceans from space focus on her with absolutely exhausted honesty. "You'll have to tell her Hematite."