2344/Awww, They're Worried.

Awww, They're Worried.
Date of Scene:	14 January 2017
Location:	Mitakihara/Pikarigaoka - King Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Kunzite and Lacrima meet in a forest both trying to investigate the same thing. Alexis, the Dusk Zone and the recent UMBRA Hacks are discussed.
Cast of Characters:	Norie Okana, Kunzite

---

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima has tried to narrow down where to search. Toward's Mitakihara doesn't make sense. The tree line is thinner there- toward's the city and the river- the woods aren't nearly big enough that she would've been able to still see either the city or the park. So it makes sense that it's more towards Pikarigaoka, which is more suburban and where the forest runs much deeper.

This still is not a particularly small area of search- in fact it is still very large, but it's a slightly better starting point than 'ALL around' the huge park.

She's taken to walking a brisk pace- deep in the woods, she isn't afraid of running into anyone and really, anyone that catches her-- they won't belive the stories about incredibly spooky girl sort of misting her way through the woods and trees.

Here, the background magical garbage of the park is a little less than the main area- but it still isn't sparse enough to do something like 'try to narrow down a particular sense or feeling of her own magic'.

Stupid park and stupid magical things always happening in it.

She keeps thinking 'Idiot'.

Idiot. Idiot. She is thinking it at herself.

But there's also something familar about that feeling. Idiot.

Kunzite has posed:
She's not the only one making that kind of search. Kunzite scoped the park out in detail long ago, though, mentally dividing it into convenient areas. And therefore he, or rather Kazuo, has begun hunting through them one at a time.

Not that he's looking for anything easy to find. Damage to the occasional tree is a constant; his cellphone is out and he takes photos, marking them for location to hunt through later for patterns, but it's hard to tell recent fights from six weeks ago from -- honestly there's probably still damage there from when he and the girls had that incident more than a year ago, let alone everything else that's happened here. A can and lighter might have been cleaned up. Metal and plastic shards, cleaned up or ground down into mud or kicked away. Burned spots would be more telling, but there might or might not be any to begin with.

It's better than nothing, all the same. And it keeps him occupied in the early morning, out of the way of early panic and early shows of not-panicking. He'll go back to make sure the others all reach their exams dressed and suitably caffeinated soon enough. Right now he needs some time to himself anyhow.

... something barely at the edges of his vision mists through the trees, and his head comes up sharply and he turns.

Not by himself. Check.

Norie Okana has posed:
Being a horrible being of dark energy that can dissolve her shape at will is sometimes useful when you're wanting to check out an area and not worry about things such as 'walking around trees'.

There's a figure.

It draws her intrest. It's when she takes note, of who it is- that she just sort of reforms herself proper. It's probably nothing that Kunzite hasn't seen before. This was probably common among youma.

"Kunzite." she says, a pause. "Are you out walking. Or are you investigating too?" a pause. "Naru-chan told me you encountered Alexis-kun. I'm glad to hear he didn't launch into an irrational attack. I was--- worried. About that." she says quietly.

"Have you discovered anything yet? I've seen some damage of sorts. But some of it just looks natural... dead trees. While others aren't emitting a signature that isn't mine or incredibly old that it looks like it could had been direct damage but nothing remains to sense." she says.

"Still can't remember anything. Nothing seems to be triggering Deja Vu really." she says matter of factly.

A head tilt. "Are you here alone?"

Kunzite has posed:
-- formation: there. And recognizable. Kazuo bows to Lacrima's appearance without a word, which buys enough time for her to more or less confirm that it is her, not someone trying to masquerade.

"Something of both," he says. "Alexis mentioned some things of his that he says had disappeared during the missing time. They do suggest a fight, and that he wasn't fighting you. It's still recent enough there might be a few signs; it seemed worth looking."

The last question, Kazuo gives a brief nod in response to. "Center's today," he says. "They'll need their sleep."

Center. The National Center Test for University Admissions.

This is not a good weekend for high school third-years.

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Ah. He never mentioned that to me." she says quietly. She seems to think a bit. No. Still not ringing any bells. She hates this. She hates not remembering. When she 'starves herself' she at least knows what she was doing during it--- feeding. This is something else entirely.

"Ah. Exam day." she says. "That explains the kick in anxeity I've been feeling. Good."

A pause. "I mean. Good that it is something mundane causing it. As opposed to myself or something else horrible." she says.

"Though I guess those tests are often like a youma." she insists.

A pause. The deadpan humor done. An awkward attempt to lighten the tone.

"I suppose now is a good time then. Nothing to overhear out in the middle of nowhere." she says.

"While. Takashi was away- UMBRA's servers were pointedly hacked." she says flatly.

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo does not make a joke about whether Eclipse runs the tests. Something about not placing a stumbling block before the blinds. He inclines his head solemnly to Lacrima's comment instead: her own joke accepted.

"Alexis said that he had a can of hairspray and a lighter in his bag, that weren't there when he looked later. So. A fight. You would have noticed if your clothing were burned; not a fight against you." He shrugs, and adds, "It might never have been used. But it's a better chance than knowing nothing at all."

And then Lacrima changes the subject, and he tilts his head. And frowns. "That's ill news for your people and ours." If it was arranged. If it was opportunism. If it was Takashi hacking himself to provide an excuse. Any way it goes. "Do you know what they did?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts a little as she listens and nods. "Alexis is afraid of not being human anymore." she says softly. "I told him that he shouldn't worry until he either starts hearing 'voices' or starts feeling his inside is burning to the core." she says. "That's how. It was with me."

She says. "I started. Hearing mumuring. But I disregarded it. Just a trick of white noise. Audio Pareidolia. Not like I could understand it." she says.

"Then just. The burning. Being in the hospital. Being made to sleep because you were just in pain and everyone around you worried. I know now that is what your body being cosumed feels like." she says.

She head tilts. "Very specfically." she says. "They stole my research on the Dusk Zone I've been compiling, and they stole Takashi's Nullheart research. They tried for more- but when I became aware of the situation I... well I unplugged the network." she says.

"I do not think they expected anyone to be there." she says.

"Regardless. Takashi is very upset and is out for blood about this. We know it was internal- and that it was remote. Nothing else untoward happened the whole time. No one else entered the building that wasn't supposed to be there." she says.

"I'm upset. For various reasons. I've been working hard trying to understand things and someone steals my work." she says flatly.

Kunzite has posed:
"Someone short-sighted steals your work, which is worse," Kazuo says, his tone even. "If they were interested in the research for long-term purposes, they'd have been better off to approach you; the Dusk Zone and its subsidiary realms house sufficient interlocking and unstable ecologies, if that word can be abused for the purpose, that teamwork is a more advisable route even in an organization as filled with internecine conflict as yours. So most likely all they were looking for was convenient monsters for their purposes. Insulting; it's easy enough to build them."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima frowns. "Much of the Dusk Zone is beautiful in it's own way." she says quietly. "Not pretty in the way Earth is. But..." she purses her lips. "I wish that I could descibe things easier, but you'd understand." she says quietly. "What I mean. I hope. Having been there before." she says.

"Oh, I wouldn't try to control any of the creatures there. I mean. Not again." she says.

"There's one that follows me around. That has been following me around since the first day I slipped into there." she says. "It's dog-like. Keeps it's distance. I don't think it's malicious and it isn't familiar in the way things are sometimes familar to me. But I also can't keep a bead on it. It'll run if I try to approach."

"Yes it'd be easier to construct them whole sale. You can control those. That's typically how it's done- there." she says frankly.

Kunzite has posed:
"Yes." Yes, he'd understand. Kazuo does not say more on that; Lacrima is not among the people he wants to know which temptations he finds more difficult to quash, and certainly not among the ones he wants to know that part of him misses the twisted and sunless skies, the gaping black chasms, the barren rocks that have long since forgotten what existing on a living world was ever like -- if they ever were. The heartstopping moments of finding an unexpected transition from one existence into another, and not knowing whether there would be a surface underfoot, or anywhere; or whether there would be air that could be breathed, or a need to sustain oneself more wholly off stored energy, or an atmosphere that could poison even bodies that had long since abandoned human flesh.

The chance to talk about it is a temptation. But Nephrite was right. That's not who he is; that's not who he chooses to be.

"Let's hope your follower is curious," he says instead, "and not a spy." Or not the voice that whispered to Lacrima. It seems unlikely, but with the Dusk Zone, one literally never knows.

He inclines his head to Lacrima's last statement, agreeing. "So. If your data was taken on purpose -- perhaps it was someone with a similar interest, unable to contact you directly because of your link with their target, but curious. Perhaps it was someone who wants monsters they can unleash without a purpose, as sheer distraction, with less investment than creation and control. Perhaps it was someone who doesn't have the infrastructure to create their own. Or perhaps it was someone who wanted to analyze the data in order to gain information on your interests and movements, your likely locations and your capabilities for observation. There are, after all, some ways in which you are superficially similar to Riventon's constructs. If they're interested in the creation of hominids out of dark energy, they might regard you as Riventon regarded me: an interesting case study."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima purses her lips. "I've not resisted attempts to 'study' me." she says. "It isn't common for- someone to be turned into a thing like this and come out 'sociable' to any sort of degree." she says. "When others talk to me- or want to study me- they want to know how I keep my 'personhood'." she says. "As opposed to becoming another monster that yells it's name repeatedly as it rampages." she says.

"They don't..."

"Know about this ability I have to 'turn' others. I haven't even told Riventon-sama." she says.

"I know what they'd ask of me and I'd prefer not to do it." she says.

"I mean. I'll need to. Eventually tell Riventon." she says. "I just need to figure out how." she says.

"After I figure out more about Alexis-kun." she says.

She sighs a bit and rubs a hand across her face. "I'm surprised Alexis doesn't blame me for things." she says softly.

Kunzite has posed:
"Alexis wasn't much of one for blame beforehand, either. He prefers problems he can deal with directly, not ones that linger and generate guilt." ... and he finds enough he can punch that the German might even be envied, just a little.

Kazuo shakes his head, just a touch. "I trust you'll be mildly alert to the possibility of kidnapping and arcane vivisection attempts for a few months, that's all. Outside your immediate group, your coworkers do not always play nicely."

Norie Okana has posed:
Lacrima head tilts. "Oh I'm aware. I am not worried about that. Riventon-sama would get upset enough that I imagine walls would explode in Headquarters until he found me." she says frankly.

"He doesn't like people screwing with his workers." she says.

"Besides. It'd be uncomfortable at best." she mutters.

She shakes her head. "I'm going to continue my searching. Good luck helping your friends with the Exam Youma." she says softly.

Off she goes, continuing along her path which is different than Kunzite's original path.