Scene #2499: You didn't need that wall, did you?

Owner	Pose
Entrapta	"So you're telling me that there's a whole area of this place, a laboratory, that's completely unused right now? And that if I were to get into it I could have access to existing research and learn from them and see experiments and possibly have access to dark energy that's been left lying around?" "Miss, I'm a janitor," is the response. "Right but you have access? And you don't particularly mind if I were to go in, and you're not security in any way? Not even a little?" "I mean...no?" Pause. Smile "That's great, that's just great. I'll just go over here, and you go about your work, and try not to get killed. Bye!" And for a while, that's all that happened near to Tomoe Labs. Not entirely empty, sure, but for some people? Close enough. Shortly after. Sounds of screaming come from inside. The janitor, knowing his position, sighs. Gets up. Hits the emergency button on the wall. Then goes back to his break. Alarm. Alarm. There's an alarm going on. it's still going on....
Lana V. Miata	Lana had put in for a transfer after things went south with the Witches 5 or less. She valued her life too much to be associated with people so reckless. After seeing what happened to Beryl's division, and hearing about the way Father Obsidian just ''washed his hands'' of her, she most certainly decided that she was going to bail the moment she saw the signs of things going downhill. ... and well, they had. Still, the paperwork was being processed, and Lana was still on call as magical security, so when the alarm went off she felt obligated to show up. Her blue swirling portal opens, and she steps out. Lana's not in henshin. Not yet. As she walks through the halls, she seems... rather unfazed by the alarm or its implications. The janitor gets a nod as she passes by, and if anyone questions her presence she just points at her lanyard. Now... where exactly did the alarm get tripped? It was somewhere around here...
Keaka Hoshiko	In all this time, it still hadn't occured to Keaka to just try and steal research without permission. Even when she was a hero... well, that sort of thing would get you declared a villain. Villains, of course, just kill you. And yes, of course, among villains you can plan and plot to betray, but you'd better win -- and who else is left for Keaka to run to, now? Still, it's been rather hard for someone who thinks as she does to prove herself to Obsidian, so when the alarm goes off, she responds, striding through the halls. It doesn't occur to her that anyone would question her presence. They know she signed on with them, and she's in henshin, the look of her screams 'villain'. Coming across Lana, she makes conversation: "None of the labs in this hall are occupied. Normally, heroes show up just as you're about to complete your great plan and get the power to save the world. And how could they get this far inside our sanctum and then set an alarm off in an ''empty lab?''" The lines and point in the blue crystal on the back of her gauntlet reorient slightly, the abstract suggestion of an eye looking around, and at Lana, and then up at Keaka. < Perhaps it's a distraction while they make their move elsewhere. Or perhaps a monster or dusk fauna got loose and wandered down here? > "Mmh." Keaka grunts assent, and strides a little more quickly towards the alarm. Still not ''running'', but growing impatient to find out what's up already.
Takashi Agera	The last time Riventon responded to an Obsidian alarm related to a lab - well... it ended very poorly. So he's in less of a jovial mood when he arrives, than he might otherwise be. So unlike Lana, Riventon is arriving in Henshin, and with an annoyed look on his face. It's not Entrapta's fault, or anyone here's, but bad memories are bad memories. So Riventon's here - stomping down the hall, Dark Energy already collecting in his hands and ink-like liquid dripping down from them to evaporate before hitting the floor. "Tch. Let's just find whatever the problem is and get rid of it." Riventon says as he comes up on Clarthas and Lana who he recognizes somewhere in the back of his mind.
Entrapta	The janitor raises an eyebrow when all these people go by him. He carefully finds a place not here to be, and slips out. Though even he can hear the screaming. That is, after all, why he hit the alarm. Another shriek comes from the lab door, urging people to enter. And when they do, because of course that's the whole point of responding to the alarm, they see the equivalent of a cat treed by a dog. If the dog was a trash can and the cat is a purple-haired engineer. "Down boy! Bad! Bad!" Entrapta shrieks, throwing a can of pencils at an animated recycling bin that's got her cornered up top of a filing cabinet. The bin, or The Bin, seems to have some dark energy in it, though not much. A drop or two, but that's apparently enough to animate it. "Oh hi!" the human (?) calls down, waving to the doorway as it opens. And the Bin doesn't seem to notice THEM as yet. The lab has a few things tipped over, but mostly it seems to be intact.
Takashi Agera	Riventon is drawn in by the sound, and comes in ready to fight - but he doesn't, at least not yet. Instead, there's an almost longsuffering sigh that leaves his mouth. He recongizes the girl in the tree. He recognizes her from a meeting atop a terrificially high tower in Mitakihara in yet another place she wasn't supposed to be in... "...I'm going to guess you don't have permission to be in this room?" he asks, the energy in his hands slowly dissapating. He's met Entrapta once, but that's enough to make assumptions, anyways. "You know if you don't have Dark Energy yourself it's going to see you as a threat." he warns. Well, that warning might be a little bit late, since she's throwing pencils at it now.
Keaka Hoshiko	Clarthas pulls a laser pistol out from under her coat as they approach the door. If it ''is'' a trap, there may not be time for spells. And then she remembers she can fly and throw darkness beams and is stupidly tough now, and shakes her head slightly. Old habits of the original... Riventon opens the door, and makes conversation with whoever's inside; she lowers the pistol and steps into view. Whoever they are, Riventon is acting like they're harmless. They certainly look it at the moment. She puts the pistol back. "Civilian employee?" Well, if ''that's'' the problem. She gestures at the animated bin. "Down boy. Come. Heel." If ''that'' doesn't work, she holds out the gauntlet, which helpfully chimes < Powering Link Drives. > and then the monster, to whatever degree it may have awareness, becomes aware that were it to move to Keaka's side and wait that would be, in a tactical sense, a good idea. This doesn't actually override or contravene any other ideas or understanding of the situation it may have. It's not a dusk creature so she can't just directly control it.
Entrapta	The 'dog' jumps up, snapping at Entrapta's dangling hair. It catches ahold of one strand, which makes her shriek! "Gah! No! Down!" Managing to get free enough, she is still isolated atop a filing cabinet. She doesn't respond to Takashi's assumptions, since there appear to be other priorities at the moment. "It's just confused!" she explains! "And I need it for my tests!" She points to the table, where a weird little circuit board rests. But that's not a major deal right now. Sadly the recycling bin simply twitches underneath Clarthas' magic, having no intelligence. But Entrapta says, "Hey, while you're here, if you could attach that to the ...what do you call them? Youmas? Right, to that! That'd make it much better, and I'd really appre...yeek!" She almost forgot about the being under attack for a moment there. "No, I need my pants!" The bin's gotten ahold of something else now, and it's got Entrapta's attention.
Takashi Agera	Riventon looks at Entrapta and tilts his head. "What are you even doing here... not in the building, I heard a little about that, I just mean in this particular room." he says. "Making youma... kind of..." he says. "...this one seems off, in a different way than they usually do. Probably why it's not responding." He tells Clarthas. He can't put his finger on why it's just a bit unique. Like the girl who it's currently attacking. Probably related. "I don't think we're going to get any answers unless we help her." he says. It's not just Entrapta, either. Riventon's been a part of Obsidian for a while and floated across more than one Mad Science Lab. He's aware of how things work. All the same, he's not moving. Instead he's looking at Clarthas expectantly.
Keaka Hoshiko	Clarthas nods. Experiment misbehaving, this is more... normal. They look at and approach the circuit, reaching the gauntlet over it. They whisper, "I don't suppose you can analyze its functions?" < If I can, that functionality is not yet unlocked. We haven't been generating much Resonance lately. > They grunt. "It ''looks'' like some kind of energy is being transferred... oh. Is that how you got the Dark Energy into it?" Without waiting for a response, they pick up the circuit board and hold it against the Bin in whatever way it looks like it's meant to go.
Entrapta	Kicking her leg free, Entrapta says, "Oh I don't mind answering questions," though that comment wasn't technically directed at her specifically. "Clearly I was trying to work with dark energy, since nobody will let me play with it normally." Breath. "And that circuit is a dark energy transfer buffer. I've had enough time to look at it, and apparently dark energy is just a really efficient way to move energy from one location to another. Admittedly it seems to usually be held by one person, but it's the most efficient way to transfer from one location to another." Often without the permission of the person involved, sure. But that's nitpicking, it works and it works well! "What you're holding is a mathematical adjustment circuit, theoretically allowing an existing dark energy circuit to function with an if/then scenario parameter! The thaumatological circuit will be rerouted through the board, pulling from one aspect and adding to the others!" The bin has started to grow. Fast. The roof is buckling. The bin, thrashing, strikes the outer wall, which starts to give. The room is... No longer pristine. "I hadn't actually tested it yet though!" No kidding, really? It seems to still be growing. Yikes.
Lana V. Miata	Seeing Keaka, Lana walks in stride with him and shrugs. "Who knows? Maybe they got lost. Did one of the higher ups complete some doomsday weapon and forget to tell us?" Either way, it doesn't seem like she's in any particular hurry. Maybe if she shows up late enough, she can avoid doing actual work today. Maybe it's that attitude that has her showing up late relative to everyone else, seeing the situation, frowning, and then turning around. "One moment." A few seconds later, Starfall Omen is stepping into the room. "Okay, so... We're trying ''not'' to kill it? Maybe if I can contain it..." Then she looks up. The bin has grown. "... Ah... You know, usually we do this kind of thing outside. Then when it goes wrong the rainbow squads usually clean it up for us." Is this her job today? Is there a way that this could not be her job today? How does she skimp out on work while also pretending to be useful and busy? The room is buckling. "Okay I'm setting up a barrier." A wave of magic spreads from her as the color in the room shifts slightly. The magicals are shifted half a dimension over, which is honestly the best thing she can do for the deteriorating lab conditions. There! She did something useful. Now someone else can get yelled at instead.
Keaka Hoshiko	Nobody will let me play with it... "Mood." answers the leaderless Dark General. And he's been feeling like it for a moment, now, and isn't around non-magic users and doesn't have to pretend to be normal, so he switches shapes. He's still the same height and still in the same outfit with the 'the person wearing this is in the service of evil' vibes. But the fit is slightly different. The most dramatic part is probably the shorter -- but still long -- hair and the voice. "Wait," he looks up at Entrapta, "This is Obsidian, all of us use Dark Energy, what do you mean 'nobody will let you'?" He looks at the bin. "So... where is this transferring energy from?" Aaaand it's growing. "Wait, you're moving energy between its aspects?" < Like reallocating Resonance between my drives? > 'That's what I was thinking.' he mutters, but now it's gone from simply growing to Being a Problem. At least Lana shuffled them into a Barrier. Which means they can cut loose. He takes a combat stance. "Sarida." CHIME. < Powering Strife Drives. Hybrid Sword. > Armblades of glowing orange force deploy, one from the gauntlet and a matching one from an energy-bracer appearing on the other, and he dashes forward to try and cut around the board -- in the possibly vain hope that the Bin is still made of plastic and easy to cut.
Takashi Agera	Riventon nods, smirking a bit. "There really isn't an energy source stronger than Dark Energy." he agrees. "Properly utilized, it can be the solution to all of Mankind's problems." Depending on who you ask this is true for one reason or another. Not being around can solve a lot of problems, too. The barrier pulls the world into the not-quite-real space that at least means there's less worry about someone getting cited for property damage - someone, in this case, perhaps being Riventon, as he's (arguably) the one with the most seniority here, and he can be rather assured that people will recognize the title when it comes time to avoid being responsible for actual trouble. "Thank you." he says honestly to Lana. "I suppose she means people external to the Company? I met her before she joined. She's got a mind for magitech." he says, which is a pretty good compliment in his books. "Like you and me. But not entirely the same." he says. "But outside of here people tend to get all whiny about it." "I think you may need to repeat this process in a different locale next time, yeah." he suggests. Clarthas moves in to try and cut the board off, but Riventon? Right now he's observing because of Lana's barrier. There's no threat to anyone (well, maybe Entrapta) and this is a new situation. Why not let his Device gather readings? "Do you have a theory or hypothesis you're trying to test, or just... seeing what happens?" It's Riventon, and he can respect either answer.
Entrapta	"Mmmfff! Mafflafvlve!" Or something about waffles, it's hard to tell. Entrapta isn't answering questions at this exact moment, because one of the first things that happened when the Bin started to trash stuff was that it banged up against her filing cabinet. And she fell. Her head is stuck behind the cabinet, and she's flailing helplessly to try and get loose, and is not actually being a great deal of help with the actual problem right ow. Or right now, though 'ow' is also appropriate. Language is weird. Though if she were, she'd likely direct someone to look at the readings the rescue team's various systems have begun to gather. The main stats that her system can draw from become clear. Endurance, Size, Power, Speed, and Energy. Drawing from one directs it to others. And there seems to be some form of reaction between Clarthas' attacks and the energy transfer. Size, decreasing, the bin starts to shrink. Then to crack, and to slow down. As the circuit falls off, skittering across the floor. And it begins to glow. But hey, things blowing up when you break them is just theoretical, right? "Mmf!"
Takashi Agera	Riventon is very familiar with things blowing up when he breaks them, actually. You get used to it. But Riventon is also actually rather quick at thinking, and Clarthas and Lana are both likely capable of handling any explosion, it's Entrapta who's less so. Especially if... she's currently trapped behind a filing cabinet. He's quick, over there and shoving the filing cabinet in the direction that's away from Entrapta and crushing her and more likley to free her with one hand, which he then offers to help her up. His other hand is ready to produce a barrier in case the glowing energy receptacle does exactly what glowing energy recepticals that have been damaged are so likely to do.
Lana V. Miata	Starfall Omen smirks as Riventon talks about Dark Energy being the solution to all of Mankind's problems. She agrees with the statement. She does not share why. Being thanked, however, catches her off guard. Do we... do we ''do'' gratitude here? Is that a thing? A thing that we do on team evil peeps? That's... that's so weird. Well maybe not ''that'' weird. It's more of a case by case thing, Lana supposes. Riventon is the 'sometimes polite evil' type. Duly noted. "Yeah people sure have a lot of opinions. The moment you start rising to the top is when all the critics come out." Starfall stands back and watches as Clarthas takes on the Bin, or at least tries to cut off the circuit board. It seems to... shrink? While also cracking? "Interesting," she notes. < Bestellungen? > chimes her Device, Nightmare Chain. "Claw Mode," is her response. As her staff glows and transforms, it turns into a pair of claws that wrap around her hands. < Dichtungsketten > A pair of chains fall from between each pair of claws, and Lana drags them on the ground as she walks towards the bin. With a swipe of one hand and then the other, she wields the chains like whips and tries to wrap them around the Bin and, if successful, tries to drain the energy from them. She is ignoring the circuit board that might explode. This is probably hubris. She will find that out in a moment.
Keaka Hoshiko	The solution to all Mankind's problems. Clarthas briefly imagines the world coming undone, plunging into nothingness, unable to make good people suffer anymore -- but that's not what Riventon means. Someone trying to save the world is working here? If Dark Energy could do that though, this organization wouldn't last... Ah, she meant people outside the company. Clarthas nods. "Yeah. The Bureau was like that, too. Locking away all the Lost Logia instead of using them to better the world." And now, in this random moment, something ginally occurs to him: "If they changed the world, they might not be needed anymore, and then they couldn't be in control..." ''SO OBVIOUS.'' His past self was so naïve! And after his attacks, it starts to become clearer how it works, and right now he as a new thing to be excited about, joy in scientific possibility that others here know all too well. "If you can alter the conceptual attributes of things like that... This is it! You've replicated Rotation Drive, or at least all the tactical combat ability of it! And you can build ''more'' of this and give it to others?!" This really is a momentous discovery! He looks around for Entrapta but where'd she go? And then the circuit is clattering and he runs over to take a look at it-- but it's glowing, and the gauntlet is quick to take action. CHIME < Powering Barrier Drive. Force field. > and something a lot like a Round Shield surrounds Clarthas in a protective field of force.
Entrapta	Awkwardly taking Riventon's hand, Entrapta is pulled toward safety. From the problem that she herself caused. "It's just math!" she insists. "I can show the equations, but nothing is created from nothing. It all equals out." Apparently that the equations balance is more important to her than her, or anyone else's, safety. Which is when the Bin decides to explode. It detonates, sending a wave of energy out, which impacts with the defenses put into place. Force, then a draining heat that pulls from those around itself. But, something else is happening. The chains wrapped around it seem to be somehow causing the energy wave to implode, at the same instant as the explosion. Dichtungsketten grabs the physical aspect of the Bin, which is failing to exist as it is expended outward, and redirects it into itself. Dark Energy meets Dark Energy, and while the Force Field of the Barrier Drive protects the softer bodies, the chain grapples with the expansion. Only dark energy can hold dark energy. The chains want to add to the energy, but they are able to hold it tight because the Bin itself had very little actual power. Only a drop or two, in the beginning, but it was drawing from its physical reality to power energy. It sizzles, then ceases to be. A circle of dust inside of the chains and protections. Entrapta tilts her head to try and get a look at the debris, but she's really not getting past Riventon. She's something of a waif.
Takashi Agera	"Well, energy isn't made from nothing, no. But converting emotions into energy is basically the crux of a lot of what we call magic, in one way or another. That's the situation I'm trying to fully put into scientific repeatability... but I think that's a discussion for another time." Riventon notes.. Even though the energy is redirected and sonumed within itself, Riventon's shield comes up anyways. To him, Entrapta is a useful brain inside a sadly mundane shell, and his opinion of 'mundane' people is... not high, especially when it comes to withstanding anyways. But the circular shield proves unneeded, in the end. "...that's an interesting trick you've done, in any case. With transfering things around. I'd like to see the equations, once you're sure you're not going to end up pinned atop a filing cabinet by a killer garbage can." Riventon says this like it's a normal thing because in Obsidian, it kind of is. "The whole turning the end result of it into dust thing makes me sure we should only be plugging things like this into youma for the time being." says Riventon, even though he's always looking for more power for himself, he doesn't want to become a circle of dust anytime soon.
Lana V. Miata	"Everything is math," says Starfall, with far too much confidence considering she ''personally'' knows magic exists and things don't always add up like you expect. Then again, she's literally a Devicer, so maybe math and magic correlate a bit more closely in her mind. The Bin explodes, and Lana is suddenly worried, because it's hard to move away from something exploding when you are ''chained to it''. An autocast Devicer shield appears in front of her, a set of concentric shining white arcane circles rotating counter to one another in an attempt to protect Lana from her own folly. The blast washes over the shield for a moment before being contained, while Lana has a silent 'oh crap' moment. When the Bin turns into dust, she lets the chains vanish. Starfall takes a step back as her eyes dart around to see if anyone caught her getting worried. "Well! I suppose that's... that then."
Keaka Hoshiko	"It's not just emotions... well, it wasn't on other worlds. Earth is strange." If emotions were so readily converted to power, then by wanting to make things better so badly, he would've been able to, back then. The explosion sends his shield rolling like a hamsterball, and it's a second before he starts flying and dismisses the field, and rights himself. "Yes. I would also like to see the equations, and talk with you about conceptual rotation..." He sounds eager, as one would expect a scientist who's seen something in your work. He floats over to the others and lands. His eyes glance to the used-to-be-The-Bin. "...The Dust Problem is something else we'll have to fix. I wonder... You said it all balances out. So if it ends up as dust, where did the not-dust-ness go? Avenues for further study, to be sure." He smiles, and holds out a hand to shake "Clarthas Anode, pleased to make your acquaintance. Or Keaka Hoshiko, when not... you know." He gestures at the outfit.
Entrapta	"I'll have to calculate what I can from the data I just gathered, but my notes are your notes," she says to Riventon. And possibly everyone else, there's very little secrecy in her purple head. "Did you just redirect the redirection? That has got to be a dark energy interaction, I hadn't considered the possibility. It's likely only dark energy users could do that, I imagine other types would be less able to handle the blast. I wonder why it blew up, there's got to be an aspect of the project that affects structural integrity..." She's also a talker. Pause. "I honestly had no idea if it'd work. The theories were sound, but...Earth is very strange, yes. That's a good way to put it." She looks at everyone, and at the hand being outstretched. Then immediately starts to draw equations. on the wall. Screw it, it's her wall now. "I'm sorry, I need to think. Graphical systems fall into curves under the listed parameters, there's no power source of that level so it draws from linkages between atoms, dark energy gathering itself through the ..." Nuclear bonds, energy chasing electrons across physical types. You may have lost her. This is Entrapta, though she's not social exactly.
Lana V. Miata	Starfall Omen just kinda stares at Entrapta. The wannabe-apocalypse lost track of what the purple haired scientist was saying like 10 words in and never regained the train of thought. There are three different flavors of mad scientist in this room, and Lana is exactly zero of them. She's not a scientist. She's just mad. "Well... as long as you're having fun." After a moment she says, "Oh... your wall notes probably aren't gonna carry over when I drop the barrier." Is Entrapta even listening? Oh well. Lana drops the barrier anyways, returning them all to the real world. The sooner she does that, the less she'll lose, right? Or will she even notice?
Takashi Agera	"From an Earthling's perspective it is all of the other worlds that are strange..." Riventon notes, pushing his glasses up. "At least here, I don't turn into a frickin' equine quadruped." he notes. He looks to Clarthas. "Probably the same place energy goes during an explosion, really. Just more... implodey and converting stuff to dust." he notes. "There's always a Dark Energy interaction. It turns impossible into merely improbable - when you're working with such concentrated power, it's kind of like quantum mechanics. The rules we're used to using break down, and new rules take their place." he says. "You know, one way or another, you just created a way for us to give youma temporary-if-dangerous power, and that's like half of what the research teams around here strive for." Riventon says. "I should see about getting you a proper lab - one people won't sound alarms for. And... then maybe a way for you to sound an alarm yourself." he says, looking over at the toppled file cabinet. "I should speak to Fuyuko, see if we can get you set up a proper space as a freelancer." He says. "...unless you're planning to go Sparkle anytime soon? The last freelancer I sponsored decided to swap teams and I'd like to not develop that reputation."
Keaka Hoshiko	"You ''turned into'' a-- Oh. You went to one of the ''weirder'' worlds, huh? Or at least, what we'd have thought was weird until Earth..." Clarthas nods at the parts he could follow, no idea it would work but had to try it, yes, all understandable. He stands nearby and watches her write on the wall, trying to follow. The abstract 'eye' pattern on the gauntlet's gem 'looks' as well. Riventon points out that she did exactly what most of the research teams are trying to. "Yeah! I didn't think it was possible to replicate something like that, let alone for use by a non-magic-user... It's a shame that back home research like this would just get locked in an archive somewhere." "So... you're not moving anything along conceptual abstract axes at all, to change these properties? I wonder... hmm, what if we... what even happens if you used dark energy to..." There was a filing cabinet over there and Entrapta was throwing pencils earlier. He grabs a blank paper or at least an empty folder and a pencil, and starts his own sketching of graphs and notations. Something Riventon said finally crosses his brain. "How can she go Sparkle if she doesn't have power?" He blinks and looks at Entrapta. "...Would you ''like'' power? There are some avenues of research in that direction... I suppose this is one too, if we can stop it from turning you to dust after..." He strokes his chin thoughtfully.
Entrapta	"I'm not human," the girl says as her notes vanish. She just continues, as if it's all in her head anyway. "and...nobody told me it couldn't be done," she adds. Then, finally, "I'm ...Entrapta." Then she's gone. Still physically there, but staring into space. The notes on the wall say it all, as she thinks. It shouldn't work. The math doesn't work. Yet, it worked. "I'm gonna need some time."