Scene #2916: Path of the Meister -- Pizza, Chips, and Brainstorming

Owner	Pose
Rashmi Terios	Not very long ago, Starcrash reported the activation of a Barrier at ground level, with Rashmis signature. Then its deactivation, then another, smaller one, directly underneath. This was followed by a text message, in Rashmi's voice, sent to Starcrash. << Heyyyy Molly-chan! I hope it's okay, I needed a workshop to putter around in while I do some designing. Your moms won't even know I was here, but if you want to come down and keep me company I'd be super happy for it! The Barrier's permeable, but it stops at the doors so it'll be a little weird to see. >> And that was it, apparently. Rashmi, dropping by to bum the interdimensional echo of Molly's mom's garage for a while. Followed, of course, by an invitation to join, which always means snacks. Rashmi never lets her friends go hungry, even for a little bit.
Molly Skyline	The answer to Rashmi's text comes about four and a half minutes later, when the door opens and Molly arrives into the barrier. The purplenette struggles with the door, taking a minute to figure out how to open it, keep it open enough to walk through, and not drop the pizza box with a bowl full of chips on top of it, all with only one arm to work with. Somehow she pulls it off. When she sets her cargo down at last, she breathes a sigh of relief. "And yes, about ten seconds ago I realized 'I could have just gotten Starcrash to help me with that'," she bashfully admits. "Look, I'm never not gonna be a dork. ...And I'm glad for the surprise visit, Rashmi-chan, you know you're welcome to use this space whenever you want, it brings me joy." She pauses, and gestures towards the pizza box, "Pepperoni pizza, just... like from England. Mom and Mom are out for the night." Finally she can't contain it any longer. "Whatcha working on?"
Rashmi Terios	The moment the door opens, and Rashmi sees the burden Molly struggles with, she dashes over to help, leaving Nicomachea hovering above one of the bench tables, screens festooning the air above his pages. "Or you could have said 'get the door, I'm loaded down with food,'" she chuckles. And when all is set down, she wraps the purplenette in a tight hug. "And I know, but it just wouldn't be polite to walk in like I owned the land the next dimension over, y'know? Thanks for the food though, and..." She looks back at Nicomachea when the question is broached, and lets out a long puff of air. "Upgrades. There's more been happening to people than I can really help with, so... I'm gonna build Nicomachea a new form altogether. And new grimoire to go with it."
Molly Skyline	Molly wraps her arm around Rashmi's back and returns the squeeze, and chuckles softly; a clear signal that today is a ''good day'', and not one of the ones marked by an air of listlessness that has been plaguing the purplenette on and off of late. Or perhaps it's simply that the surprise appearance of her best friend flipped the script. "That is extremely cool," Molly replies as she pulls a stool over, to sit alongside where Rashmi is working. She sets the chips aside and flips open the pizza box -- no plates, but the inside of the lid will do nicely -- and gestures around the room. "And you've chosen to do it in the middle of what is basically my heaven, so I'm honored." Molly rests her arm on the bench table, "So... what's this new form and grimoire all about? I won't try guessing, 'cause I'd just guess like... I dunno, lightning mode or something and I know that'd be wrong."
Rashmi Terios	At the not-a-guess, Rashmi laughs quietly, cheered as much by the obvious sign that her friend is having a good day as by her interest in the project. Picking up a slice of pizza, she folds it in half like she'd seen Americans do in the movies, and takes a bite, chewing on both food and question. "Well, you know that what Nicomachea and I are both best at is support, helping lift everyone else up, right? Well... A few things've happened that make me wonder if I've really been keeping up doing that, and looking back at the fights over the last year... Nicomachea and I both noticed that I've been concentrating more on fighting than supporting. Which... I mean I can do it, but, I shouldn't be trying to fill your position, y'know? We're not really... optimized for it." Shrugging, she waves her free hand at the screens. "So... I've been working pretty hard on what I can do, and seeing how far we can push things like the Boost spell. And the answer is... pretty far! If I accept some, uh... limitations."
Molly Skyline	"Well, fighting isn't bad," Molly points out as she claims her own piece of pizza, now that Rashmi has taken one first. (There was a slice missing to begin with so it's noy like she hasn't already had some and it's fairly obvious.) "I mean, I'm not... territorial about dishing out damage or anything, and you are definitely a ''lot'' better at attack spells than I am at support spells. Like, the other day when I wanted to defend you I basically just had to throw up a shield and stand in front of you, hoping for the best. I might be a hammer but you're basically a swiss army knife." Molly takes a bite, and chews on both food and thoughts like Rashmi had been doing -- though she doesn't fold the pizza. "But... Whenever you boost me I end up feeling like I could blow up the Moon. ...I ''couldn't'', so we're clear, not even close, but I feel mighty. So you think you can push that even further, and-- wait, what kind of limitations?"
Rashmi Terios	"Well I mean like... that's the thing, right? You aren't Alo-chan," Rashmi counters. "Your specialty isn't defending people, it's keeping them safe by visiting ungodly violence on whatever's causing trouble. Hard on the infrastructure, maybe, but that's what Barriers are for." The rest of the slice of pizza disappears into her mouth, and she brushes her hands off over the lid. "And if I configure the emitters right, I can tune them to really push support-oriented magic out. Like... I haven't nailed down all the possibilities, but, with the extra output it's completely feasible to throw down two Boosts simultaneously. Or, lay down something that'll last for longer than just a few seconds! ...Not to mention everything I've learned from working on Luminous Titan, I think I might have a way to mitigate Dark Energy, a little bit, without needing purification." Rashmi seems like she could go on for hours in this vein, but hauls herself back, and clears her throat. "I just... y'know... have to almost completely do away with offense. ...And defense." And on that, red-faced, she shoves an entire handful of chips into her mouth. Can't keep talking with her mouth full, hah!
Molly Skyline	Molly's hand follows Rashmi's to the chips -- Shiawase Butter flavor as it turns out -- and she stuffs a couple in her mouth to crunch them up in time with Rashmi. "Well, yeah, I ''do'' enjoy my role of dropping big amounts of damage on anything that behaves impolitely. I mean, y'know, it's kinda fun even if I know it's battle and it's not supposed to be fun." She sucks in a breath. "But it's..." she struggles for a word, "Satisfying to leave a crater in the ground and know that what's left of some Obsidian employee's prized Youma is at the bottom of it." Molly opens her mouth to say something else, then closes it again. "Okay I was expecting you to say you were gonna have to give up on offense and honestly that's fine, but ''defense''?! Rashmi-chan, I would like very much to be the ''only'' Mahou who's gotten killed and resurected under the control of a horrible villain for most of a year, please ''please'' be careful when you use this, yeah?" Because of course, Molly isn't going to talk Rashmi out of it. But that doesn't mean she can't worry a little.
Rashmi Terios	If Rashmi were to be honest -- and she's terrible at lying anyway -- part of the reason she silenced herself with chips is, she wanted Molly to get out all of her problems with this plan, and give herself time to think how to address them. Another part of the reason is, Happiness Butter is such a good chip flavor. But she can't chew forever, and eventually has to swallow a mouthful of flavored potato and speak. "...So okay, first thing... Not give up, I said 'almost completely do away.' The almost really matters, because I'll still have my Barrets and the basic Shield. Second... The more trouble I can get everyone else to be for a big monster, the less of a concern I'll be, and third... Yeah part of the battle plan was always gonna be 'find the best person on defense and stay behind them' so... Don't worry. I am keeping what I won't be able to do very very close in my mind."
Molly Skyline	"Yeah back home in England we just had stuff like ketchup and Dill Pickle, and I love Dill Pickle but it's nothing compared to this, so, yeah. England is like, boringville compared to Japan." Molly punctuates that statement with a handful of chips, naturally. "Okay so, not ''entirely'' giving up offense and defense, which... yeah okay that's good, sorry for misunderstnading and getting all, y'know, up in arms about it." Molly blushes softly, and takes that moment to push her glasses up her nose to semi-hide it. "If you boost my damage I guarantee you I'll be doing everything I can to get as much attention as possible. Probably more than I deserve. I might end up going through another concrete wall or two, but you gave me Breakwall so that'll be ''probably'' okay and if it's not I'll have a broken arm... which... would really suck actually, so I'll try not to have that happen." Molly glances down at her right arm with her lips pursed, and shakes her head. "What're you going to call this mode? If you've worked that out."
Rashmi Terios	"Thaaaaat I haven't really gotten so far at," Rashmi admits. "I'm not gonna really name it, until I've gotten the grimoire finalized. Otherwise I could name it like Ultra-Doom Mode and feel silly when I'm throwing bunnies around, y'know? And don't worry... I kind of expected you would, and your opinion matters Molly-chan. If I don't know what problems you see, how can I address them?" Another slice of pizza is claimed. "And Breakwall was, well... In Case Of Emergency, Break Wall. It's just a smart thing to have on hand, even if you end up not needing it. But, if you do take a hard hit..." With a gesture, Rashmi enlarges one of the screens, where incomprehensibly-dense code scrolls up and up and up, around a pair of rotating diagrams; one of a dome, and the other an endlessly-changing pie chart. "That's the spell I'm working on now. Basically I'm adding a payload to a Shield. It's just a static area-defense shield to save on processing costs, but there's a payload inside. I think I'm gonna call it 'Solar Sanctuary,' because you're being protected and healed while it's up. I... can't really separate out to two functions, so if the shield breaks, so does the healing, but..."
Molly Skyline	"But it's awesome," Molly interjects. "I know you're about to get all concerned about what happens if your Solar Sanctuary gets hammered down off of someone who needs it -- and Solar Sanctuary is a really cool name, by the way -- but don't. You can only contingency so far, and the fact that you can ''do it in the first place'' is awesome. I promise you if I'm ever laying on the ground with broken bones and you throw one of those things up, for one I'll be grateful and for two, other people will take the heat off it anyway." Proving that even when she's not low on mana she has a hollow leg, Molly claims another piece of pizza and starts munching it. It's cooling off a bit but it's still delicious, naturally. "So uhh... silly question. I know you can boost people's offense and defense, and you're talking about getting some healing in there, which is awesome. But, out of curiosity -- think you could ever do, like..." She takes a bite so she can chew on it while she thinks up her words, "Like I dunno, a mana transfer, so if someone is just ''out'' for some reason you could get them back in? I remember Riventon doing mana-draining attacks so I'm pretty sure a transfer where you give instead of take is possible at least in theory?"
Rashmi Terios	"So I was thinking about that!" Rashmi says, pointing up with a big grin on her face. "And Nicomachea says that, theoretically, it's kind of doable. Like, it's never gonna be more efficient than using the mana myself, but if I use the framework of a Boost spell, he says the numbers look pretty good. Like you could get a couple, maybe three things off using infused mana." Looking back at the screens, she clears her throat. "...Honestly I've been thinking about it ever since I learned how Amy-chan's magic works, like, at all. I know Boosting her lets her get more effect for less magic, but honestly... Her, and any other Puella, would be my primary targets for something like that."
Molly Skyline	Molly munches pizza in silence (well not complete silence), and hrmms softly. "Well two or three things is a lot more than no things, if someone's out of mana," she points out, "And you giving someone like me or Amy the chance to get off one more spell I think would be amazing. ...And, uhm, yeah, if you could help Amy not be like, burning up her soul to throw magic bullets at people, I think that'd be your best use of it." The purplenette muses a little longer, time taken up by chewing on the crust. "Okay like, tell me if this doens't work, but. Could you have a more efficient transfer if instead of giving the mana directly, you boosted the other person to temporarily drain it from... well either from you, or another willing donor? Riventon takes it unwillingly, I imagine if someone is okay with giving it'd be better, right?"
Rashmi Terios	"So a couple things about that," Rashmi says, in the voice of someone who has has this train of thought. "One, Riventon is taking it with Dark Energy nonsense, and despite having a faint understanding of, like, its magnetic properties... That's completely foreign to me. Two, technically it's possible -- the equipment I'm building in to Nicomachea started out as basically a blood-transfusion machine for magic, but... he can't do anything with any mana but mine. Part of it's basic Device functionality, part of it is, nobody really wants a Device with the ability to take mana, no matter how many safeguards you put on it." Smiling, she spreads her hands. "This is just me giving you the answers I learned the hard way; it's best for everyone if I'm not messing with anyone's mana but my own."
Molly Skyline	"Hey, nothing wrong with giving me the reasons why it doesn't work -- I ''did'' ask, afterall." Molly flashes a grin, "I figured you'd probably thought that through already, but I was also totally ready to go provoke Riventon into draining me so you could get some scans of it to reverse-engineer." The purplenette munches some chips and thinks that over. "Y'know, at some point, that might be a thing t odo anyway; maybe we could figure out how to build a defense against his draining, if we had better information on how he does it? And by 'we' I mean 'you', you're the one with the Device engineering know-how. ...My promise to tune up your car someday still stands, but I do ''not'' try to tinker with five-dimensional magically powered machines. That's your thing."
Rashmi Terios	"Well I mean, I would be happy to at least teach you how to fix Starcrash's self-repair module," Rashmi notes. "That's something we all should know, and it's better to be out of commission for a few days if I can't do anything about it, than for however long it takes, y'know?" More chips, and a drink, as she mulls the idea over. "Though yeah, it would be a good idea to do something about energy drain... It's just, given the priorities we tend to have when something's doing that, it's hard to have the time to get scans. Still... I'll keep it in mind, maybe talk to Entrapta-chan about it some time. But first, check this out..." And so Rashmi moves on, explaining the things she's thought of and developed; some of them just tweaks on what to do before, some of them pie-in-the-sky ideas, but all of them endlessly interesting to her, and if she knows Molly won't be able to follow everything, she can at least concentrate on the end result, which is much easier to grasp. Pizza, chips, and brainstorming; what a pleasant way to spend an evening.