117/The Cabin for Gifted Individuals

The Cabin for Gifted Individuals
Date of Scene:	19 July 2023
Location:	Abandoned Cabin
Synopsis:	Riventon comes across a strange, abandoned cabin outside the city. Inside, he meets someone who might finally be his equal... at least, in terms of arrogance. Who is this strange girl by the name of Hinoiri and can she really be everything she says? ... Probably not.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Takashi Agera

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
It wasn't very far outside the city that Takashi found himself drawn. Not very far at all. Perhaps it was the slight pull of dark energy, like a light drip of a water faucet alerting the water department that something was on when it shouldn't be. Either way, the source likely took quite a while to find... And the call was getting slightly more incessent.

The cabin itself was... not in the greatest state. Perhaps, a few years back, it had been someone's summer home. But as time had gone on, visits had become less and less frequent and now the lot was so overgrown that whoever came here would need to cut through some of the bushes just to park a vehicle.

One of the windows had been busted open, covered with an old blanket, the glass picked up. It was hard to tell how long ago it had happened. However, while the outside was a mess, the inside... not so much. Getting the door open was likely simple for his abilities and as filthy as the outside had been, the inside was... nicer. Someone had been going in and out, recently, and had even made a small attempt to clean up. Near the entrance were a few scattered things. It might take him a while to figure out what they were, though. Cell phones, or their remains at least. Possibly three or four. One of them looked like they had been torn to bits, the screen snapped, the plastic damaged. The second was... slightly better. While pieces showed that they had been manhandled a bit, and the more delicate pieces had been broken, it was, in theory, at least mostly a phone. The third one had been... entirely disassembled, seemingly with actual tools. The screws taken out and everything. Though there didn't seem to be any sign of the destroyer trying to put them back together.

Further in the cabin he'd be able to find... charts. Papers strewn about, books ranging from childish fairy tales to advanced astrology spread out and opened to different sections. The papers made no sense, while the writings seemed... akin to japanese, they were all just... subtly different. Also, the handwriting was possibly the worst he'd ever seen. As if someone more stabbed the paper with a pen than actually wrote the kanji.

He could hear a voice further back in the cabin, someone mumbling to themselves. The further he went, the more he'd begin to run into things that likely interested him.

While they didn't make any sense and the calculations, if that's what the symbols he saw were, made even less sense. But those were definitely arcane circles of some kind. And he could feel it. Something trying to call dark energy to them... and something else repelling it.

He'd hear a frustrated growl. "Why won't you just WORK? I KNOW you can do this!" the voice snapped. In one of the cabin bedrooms, sitting upside down, was a very annoyed looking girl staring at an arcane circle she'd drawn with chalk. He could feel just the wisps of dark energy within her... but she was obviously *trying* to call it to her. To control it. The fact she hadn't been turned into a youma or died yet was a testiment to how *lucky* she was, because her attempts, so far, showed that she both understood a lot about it and absolutely nothing about it at the same time.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi had actually entered the cabin as Riventon, not knowing what he'd find, and moved slowly, using Dark Energy in a new and subtle trick to carry some of the weight of his footfalls, to help him move silently. Because of that he was able to move throughout the cabin and get a good look at everything within. The cell phones were interesting, they showed a mind that didn't understand but truly did desire to, but they weren't the most interesting thing.

    The most interesting thing were all of those charts. The magical writings. So close and yet so odd. He actually was able to quickly do some magical theory with the help of his device, and could not help but come to the conclusion that, while the arcane theorums written down here wouldn't work - couldn't work - they were consistently wrong in a similar way. Such that they could work in a different environment. Before he saw her he was half-expecting to meet someone like Catra - some sort of half animal or clearly alien form that would tell him in no uncertain terms he was dealing with someone not native to his own world.

    What he actually saw, muttering to herself as she tried to figure out what she was doing wrong, was a teenage girl about the same age as the ones he'd recently had at the Khorma Chameleon for tutoring - she had something interesting going on with her hair, the yellow and orange, but even that wasn't too crazy in the vicinity of the Academy. So, leaning in the doorframe, after having basically snuck up on the girl - given her back was to the door - he just called out to her.

    "You know, if you keep knocking on the door to the Dusk Zone, eventually something's gonna open up to say hello and it's not going to be happy or friendly." he called.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had not EXPECTED someone to come in. And how she reacted might have surprised him. She suddenly rolled forward, whipped her head towards him... and face planted. "R-right... that... doesn't... work here..." she said, more talking to herself than him. Apparently she'd tried... something. But it hadn't done anything.

Slowly, she got to all fours, that was quick. What was less quick was her rising onto both feet, her hands in fists as she stabilized herself and stared at him. "Who do you think..." she trailed off, staring at him.

Then looked down at the circle, then back to him. She knelt down again. "No. It's not complete, it couldn't have..." she mumbled softly. "Hoshi No Uzumaki's fourth law of interdimensional points... it would have required more of this energy than..." she seemed to have almost dismissed him for a minute, except she glanced up to him after a moment before sighing.

"I take it... you're from this... 'dusk' zone?" she asked. "The lab coat is a nice touch and the glowing red eyes, gotta appreciate the classics. But if you're here to grant me a 'wish' or anything like that weird rodent, not interested. I can figure out how to work this magic without joining your war against witches or whatever."

She started drawing in the circle again. And he could see how she did it... she held the pen up, straight up, clasping it with her hand in a 'claw'. As if she'd never used one before. "Unless, of course, I DID summon you. In which case, I guess sometimes my talents can impress even me, considering I haven't managed to access enough magic to actually finish a proper summoning spell."

There was something else to the way she talked, though. It was slightly... slow. Methodical. As if she was choosing each and every word carefully, despite the flippant tone and selection. As if the words were... close to what she knew, but just a liiiiiittle off.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "War on... witch... ohhhhh." Riventon began. "I see you've met the little furry white rabbit-cat-thing with the beady eyes?" he asked. He was on some level familiar with Kyubey, had seen him with some of the Puellas, knew his game on some level, creating more damnable magical girls, obsensibly to fight witches.

    "Which means you have magical talent, not that all of the just slightly wrong scribbles in the room can't tell me that too. The way you hold the pen, the broken cell phones... and the fact that your circles are right if, among other things, one of the major assumptions I make is that there's far more ambient magical energy than there actually is... did you fall through a portal, or were you aboard the spaceship that got ripped apart?" he asked. Catra had come through a portal, or something like it, he'd heard. "Your original world... I don't suppose it's got bipedal cats?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a light snort. "Yeah, magical talent," she said dismissively. "Most talented mage they'd seen in the last century, personal student to Sovereign Sora herself, able to master advanced teleportation before my horn had fully grown. Yeah, you might say I have some 'magical talent'," she said, her tone flippant.

Though, she then paused and looked up at him for a moment before slowly getting to her feet once more. She crossed her arms and seemed to be looking at him in a whole new light, now. "Huh. You're not something summoned, are you? Is that a glamour? Or something else?" she asked. "I've been looking, but as far as everyone here seems to believe, magic isn't real. But it certainly is," she said, before motioning towards something pinned to the wall...

An invite to RHA.

"Not sure what a... spaceship... is. But no, magical mirror. Apparently it's supposed to help me achieve my destiny. As for the cat... yeah. We've got some bipedal ones, though I've only met a few when they were doing diplomatic things with Sovereign Sora, mostly met the four legged ones. Now then... what are you supposed to be?" she asked, looking him up and down again.

"If not for the shadow-show, I'd say... human. But no. You already pay more attention than the ones I've seen out there. Perhaps even competent. Hmmmm..." She walked around him for a moment, grabbing one of the... fairy tale books? That had been scattered around. "This would be so much easier if half the symbols were written correctly..." she muttered.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "From my perspective you're the one who's writing everything all wrong." Riventon says, gesturing to the attempts she'd made. "It would probably help if you held your pen like a writing instrument rather than like a stabbing instrument, though. Watching you for a moment it looked more like you were trying to injure the floor than inscribe it."

    "I'm the same as the ones out there, the difference is, I understand more than they do. Most people not only don't understand magic, they can't understand magic, can't comprehend it. If you try to tell them it slips from their mind like sand through their fingers. Only a very small subset of us can know what's truly going on. I'm not in a glamor - well, not just a glamor - but I'm transformed, in case you were looking for a fight. Armored up, ready to go." he explained. "But it looks like - despite the dangerous powers you're currently trying to play with - you're really just interested in understanding. I can respect that. I don't like not knowing things either. It's why I'm here, in fact. I didn't understand why I was getting the readings I was from here, especially when I've had so much trouble triangulating anything. But now it all makes sense. You've got incomplete information so you're releasing a great deal of energy into the air instead of into your intended reaction. You're expecting the world around you to resist the energy a lot more than it is. There's a great deal more magic ambient wherever you're from, so it's easier to work with because of osmosis. Here, there's so little, we have to put a lot of work into just keeping it collected together." he continued.

    "I also wager you're unfamiliar with the specific energy you're currently trying to control, because if you were, you'd put up more safeguards for yourself."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times before nodding. "Yeah... not exactly used to having fingers," she admitted. "Usually I'd write things with telekinesis, but that's not exactly working right now. Usually the ones with fingers were dragons, some of those cats, minotaurs, things like that. My hoof writing never was any good," she muttered. "Even when I had hooves." And there was a sentence.

"Really? They can't? That explains a lot. A large scale memory filtration spell? Theoretically... hmmmm, but you're right. The magic... ambiance in the area is incredibly low. On top of that, this form doesn't exactly control it well. I always heard that us unicorns were some of the most powerful magic casters in our world, but I hadn't realized by just how wide a margin," she said before sighing. She closed the book and placed it back down.

"And no, transformed or not I don't intend to fight you. You have *no* idea how obnoxious the last few days have been. Back home there are at least a few members of staff who could *feign* understanding of these," she said before motioning towards the arcane circles. "Here you'd might as well try to set up a four point array using a sapphire core reinforced with pixie dust and they'd probably just nod along with you as if that wasn't utter insanity."

... well, that, also, made no sense.

"And you are right," she said before snapping her fingers and... a tiny tuft of dark energy popped off. It was... pathetic, really. It wouldn't have scratched any other magical girl...

But the fact she did it was interesting. Because that amount was usually the kind of dark energy levels that were summoned by someone... right before they learned why everything they'd been doing was a *bad idea.* She should have been dead... And if he scanned her, that geode around her neck was likely the reason why. Even if it was dormant.

"I've never seen energy like this before. It's certainly... magic, of a sort. Mallable. Volatile. But... difficult. Incredibly difficult. I take it you're familiar with how to properly harness it?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon shook his head. Dragons, unicorns... well, what could he possibly say about that. Obsidian had an actual dragon working with the wierd clown guy, so... all of that stuff assuredly existed, even if it still sounded absurd to the magically-imbued boy. Still, he couldn't help but ask. "You used to have hooves?" he said. "Well, that explains the writing. Or, the lack thereof." he continued, looking around.

    "It's kind of magic. It's a form of energy. It is also, however, somewhat incompatible with the world you're standing in. Incompatible with the bodies and minds of your average human - or even most unaverage humans. I'm in a unique position in regards to it - and because of that I'm in contact with others who can use it without going insane." He decided to show rather than just tell, and dragged his gauntleted arm through the air, 'pulling' a sort of line of Dark Energy behind it, drawing that dark energy into his hand where it made an almost liquid-seeming ball, and then held his palm out, the ball floating above it. But even here the sphere occasionally distorted, like a creature was inside trying to get out.

    "Rather creatively, we know it as Dark Energy. It has a rather nasty habit of turning things into horrible monsters - both inanimate things and living things. On the other side of the coin, it's incredibly powerful if you can control it - if you can use your emotions to shape it, rather than allowing it to shape your emotions."

    "I'm unsure if it's like this in your world or not - it's rare here for those of us who can manage magic to do it with the glyphs and lines and circles like you do, and even still, emotional state is vital. Most of those who wield magic do so innately, through a mixture of natural talent and emotional desire to impart their will upon the world around them."

    Riventon then clenched his fist around the ball, causing the liquid to drip through the fingers of his gauntlet, hitting the floor, where it became small little 'creatures' with glowing red eyes that matched his and malicious faces. The creatures were each about the size of his shoe, but they pranced about with gleaming claws like malicious little imps for a few seconds before dissapating. "See, on its own, the energy is destructive, it brings on destructive emotions, it creates destructive impulses and destructive creatures." Even Riventon knew that. "Harnessing it - understanding it - turning it into something of value to the world - it is a project of mine, but an ongoing one."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded. "Yes, most unicorns have hooves. They're useful for walking, picking things up, turning door knobs, going through saddle bags. You know, pony things." Oh, there was a whole LOT to unfetter from that.

Her eyes narrowed. "Going insane?" she asked. "Ah. Using your emotions to shape it. There's always a catch, isn't there? Let me guess. 'Friendship' controls it?" she asked. "Sovereign Sora talked a lot about that as well. Yet, there she was. The most powerful alicorn in our world and not a friend in sight, yet her power was beyond imagination. Well, most's imaginations," she said with a sigh.

"Where I'm from, magic requires complex calculations, memorizing precise formulas and using them to direct your own innate magic to impact the world around you. We did have dark magic there. At least, what they called dark magic. It was, more often than not, forbidden. But it was nothing like this," she said, motioning towards the darkness he'd made. Or, well, where it had disappeared. "I've never felt anything like this... so I guess t he question, at this point, becomes clear."

"What do you want from me? I think it's fairly obvious what I'd want from you and I won't insult either of our intelligents by assuming you're not capable of teaching me at least... the minimum to get me on the right path. The mirror obviously sent me to this world for a reason and if I want to achieve my destiny, well... mastering this dark energy will have to be the first step, I suppose."

She smiled up at him. "And yes, I know you've said it can drive people insane, but trust me. You've never met a person like me."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon sighed. "I do not even know where to begin with the things you just said there. Pony things." he said incredulously, throwing his hands up at the ridiculousness. "There is so much to unpack here and we are going to have several long discussions relating to whatever cosmic backwater you hail from - but that's not important."

    "Yes, your emotions control magic. Lose faith in yourself and you'll lose your ability to do even the simplest parlor tricks. Believe in your own destiny and then you can do the work you've trained for. Channeling Dark Energy can threaten to overwhelm you with emotions that aren't your own - so you need to be in tune with who you are and just as important, with what you want, in order to keep your focus." he explained. "You don't have to like it, it's obvious you have a distaste for it. But it's the way of things, and disliking it won't change that."

"So what's your plan? Learn all of this and then step back where you came from to unleash it on them? I have no concern with that. That's somewhere else, and all of my concerns are in this world, in the things that threaten to destroy it, in the things that threaten to stop me before I can achieve what I'm looking for. In the people who don't see the value of my grand designs."

    "So I'm willing to help you learn. But in exchange I need another pair of hands for projects. Magic is rare here, and when it collects into an item but that item slips from my grasp, it's a setback for everyone in the long run. People who don't understand that have to be made to understand it. And it would be useful for you to learn to control the energy - it behaves a little bit more for you when you're angry at the target." he continued. "It's obvious you're not a novice in general, so I won't treat you like one. In fact, I believe that once you're more accustomed to the rules of this world there are several projects of mine you might be able to help with. So you help me with projects, help me with some... aggressive negotations on the final location of magical artifacts... and I'll teach you how to weild the energy, assuming you're as... capable of doing it without the side effects as you claim. Not a junior, but a partner. How does that strike you... ah, and I'll need a name. Eventually another name for others, but the name I call you?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara nodded. Oh, there were some things... she'd really need to get used to. This world was so incredibly weird. Her eyes narrowed when he called it a 'backwater' though. They were different, but if anywhere was the 'backwater', it was this place.

"Oh, CONFIDENCE? That's what you meant? That, fortunately, I have in spades. It comes from being one of the most gifted and powerful mages in my world," she said smugly. Okay, she certainly had a high opinion of herself. "And focus is something I can manage easily. Managing to keep a level head while wrangling a chimera and readying an advanced teleportation spell isn't exactly the kind of thing you can do when you're easily distracted."

Her eyes narrowed on him, though. "Unleash it on them? Hardly. My goal is to ascend to my true potential and return home. To *prove* to Sovereign Sora that I am everything *she* refused to see in me. To show her what I can truly achieve when she *isn't* holding me back. To take my rightful place as a Sovereign. As her equal. No. As her *better*," she said, stomping a foot into the ground and staring up at him. "I don't care what happens to *this* world."

She then sighed before, slowly, offering him a... fist? "But, very well. I think that is more than fair. I help you protect this world from... well, I imagine from some of those idiots in it, get what you desire. You help me understand how to harness this power so I can return in triumph. We both get what we want."

She then paused and glanced back towards her invite. "A cover, at least, is easy enough. But there's still a lot about this world I need to learn before I can... really... focus on it," she mumbled, her cheeks going a little red and crossing her arms tighter in frustration. "Like how to hold a pen with these... fingers..." Okay, so she was a little... embarrassed by it.

"And my name is Kirara. Hinoiri Kirara. And I guess... if you need a name to call me to others, some kind of code name... well... Sunbreaker I feel is fitter. Considering I'm planning to dethrone the sun-raiser of my world."

She then paused. "So, um. Does the... sun and moon like... just... move around your world on their own here? Because I'll be honest. That is REALLY weird and disconcerting."

Takashi Agera has posed:
Riventon blinked. The red eyes opened and closed along with his real one. "...Yes, that's how gravity and physics works. The sun doesn't move, the world does." he says, not even in an offensive way, but just an incredulous one. "If someone were to move the moon or sun with magic the results here would be disastrous, catastrophic. The kind of thing I'm actually trying to prevent from happening, really." he said.

    "And... confidence is a pretty good shield, yes. Strong emotions, self-relaization, however you want to call it. Some of the sparkle-skirts - that name will make sense to you sooner or later - choose that friendship and teamwork nonsense, but while I understand the value of allies, I don't see the point in combining several weaklings." He looked down at her hand. Her first. Did she want to... fist bump?

    "...we have a lot to teach you." he said, reaching out his hand. "For one thing, this is the way we seal deals..." and he generated and shook a dark energy hand to demonstrate. "See? Hand open. You shouldn't really keep it in a fist that often. Fists are generally a 'going to fight' thing for humans."

    "Anyways, this form is Riventon and..." and then Takashi dehenshioned. The clothes changed only a little bit, but he was a lot less imposing, a lot more... intelligent looking... a lot less protected visibly." My name is Takashi Agera. But don't give that one out. For a lot of reasons it's nice to be able to go to school or sleep in my dorm and whatnot and not be buried under a barrage of teamwork and also lasers. You'll probably want to separate your acts between Hinoiri and Sunbreaker for the same reason."

    Takashi held out his hand for her to shake it again. "The good news is, I see an invitation over there. So you've already got a place to stay, the Academy. I've got friends and allies there - don't confuse the two, though. Not all of my friends are allies... and not all of my allies are truly friends. You'll get it soon enough, I think."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara shuddered. "Really? Weird. It isn't lifted and thrown around by your ruler? What if you have a disaster or something and need the day to last a few extra hours or something? Well, actually we haven't had anything like that happen in centuries and street lights are now enough, but apparently before it was... anyway. Right. Moving on." This place was... weird.

She made a face at 'friendship'. "Ugh. Friends just slow you down," she muttered. "If I could find someone who could match my pace, fine. But most people are just too happy to settle for being mundane," she muttered.

Very slowly, at his direction, she spread out her hand. Before shuddering. "That still feels weird. I'll get used to it, I'm sure. But for now? Creepy. Hooves... do not do that. We shake hooves, though. Or hoof bumps."

And she would shake his hand. And shudder. "Gah. That's going to take getting used to. And good. There's... well..." She glanced back to the paper. "I'd like to learn some things before I do. While I'm sure I'll be more than capable of keeping up in these schools, there's probably quite a bit I'll need to learn that wasn't exactly taught in Sora's School for Skilled Spellcasters," she said matter of factly. "And good. Allies are fine... I don't really *do* friends. Competent allies, though? Those will do nicely."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi smiled. "Well, nobody so far has been able to match my pace, but if they can get close I can slow down a fraction. And there is something to be said for being slightly less outnumbered. Sparkle-Magical girls hunt in packs, like raptors. Wait, do you know what raptors are? Nevermind. We'll get to that later."

    "Allies, yes. Allies are good. There's a girl I'm training, but she's been useful too. I think that's the key. Useful allies. Don't worry, you won't be alone in Obsidian with the no-friends outlook. But it's nice only having half of them want to stab you in the back at any given time. Politics, all of that stuff. We'll get there. One lesson at a time."

    "...yeah, if you're expecting the moon and sun to be raised by anybody we have a lot of work to do before you get to any classes. Crash course it is. If you figured out how to pull Dark Energy with no training you probably just need to be shown the way things work and it'll click. Assuming your brain doesn't totally reject the laws of reality because you're not used to them." He did not say that as though it was a joke. His brain was trying to reject hers even though he believed her, because it was just outside of his realm of comprehension.

    "Anyways. I guess first step is to get you out of here... and teach you how Obsidian Doors work."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times. "Raptors... like... the birds?" she asked. "Ah. So the weak gather together to try and overwhelm? That, I get. I've done group projects before. Well. Okay, I was IN group projects before. Not sure if it really counts, though, if you did all the work yourself," she muttered. Namely because she rarely let others 'help'.

"Ahhhh. Politics. THAT I can do. Sovereign Sora made sure I knew *all* about that," she said firmly. "And eh, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Honestly, once I found out there WERE other worlds out there, that was kind of the big 'wait, what?' experience for me. Then actually coming out here? Yeaaaaah... compared to that, the sun and moon not being raised by magic is... weird. But okay then. A crash course sounds *perfect*."

She was about to snap at him for implying she didn't know how 'doors' worked. But then paused. "I'm guessing it's... some kind of magic door thing, isn't it?" she asked. "Well, lead on, I guess. Oh, and sorry about almost turning you into a badger when you got here. I would have turned you back. If the spell had worked, I mean," she said with a smile.

... That... that was what she was trying to do when she met him? When she face planted?