1677/Mistakes Were Made

Mistakes Were Made
Date of Scene:	23 June 2016
Location:	Mitakihara? - UMBRA Headquarters
Synopsis:	After being saved in the very last possible moment by Norie, Takashi applies icepack to face, and analysis to What Went Wrong, and appreciation to Norie and Nyubey.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Norie Okana

---

Takashi Agera has posed:
When Norie, Nyubey, and Takashi step out of the Dusk Zone into the (recently wrecked by a near-goddess of thunder) UMBRA labs, Takashi is still reeling from the effects of Jupiter's punch. Turns out taking a punch from the strongest Sailor Senshi (and Honorary Pretty Cure) that had a week's worth of righteous justice anger behind it will do that to you. It's a miracle Axion is reporting he doesn't have a concussion.

What he does have, though, is a wonderfully purple rapidly developing black eye. The shade matches the tips of his hair rather delightfully.

The first word out of his mouth is pretty much 'ungh'. as he leans against the wall. "I have a headache like you wouldn't believe."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana had arrived back in UMBRA from the Dusk Zone, with a new reformed right arm earlier--- and had arrived into some sort of warning going off--- some carnage. Something had gone horribly wrong. She couldn't find Riventon either. What happend!?

She followed the chaos to a penthouse apartment-- and just in time too. Riventon, apparently, had found himself in a situation and needed help. She just acted.

She arrived back straight from the Dusk Zone with Takashi as she stepped onto her feet. She didn't need to lean against a wall, or need help standing. She still had a Nybey on her shoulders though, probably sprawled behind her neck.

She looks concerned- but it has the look of someone that's acting the part- as usual. She thinks she should feel concern here- so she 'is'. "You got hit hard." she says softly.

"...what happened? I was in a fight and had to heal myself. When I arrived back... warnings were going off and the entire lab was a mess!" she frowns. "Um. This thing. Told me what happened so I went out searching."

She pauses. "Um. I didn't screw up anything. Did I?" she asks- that same tone of concern.

"Oh!...."

"I'll um."

"Um..."

"Where's the first aid kits..." she says as she looks around.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi shakes his head. "I don't need first aid." he mumbles. "I do need an ice pack. There's one in the fridge. Lab B, right around the corner." he says. Then, very quickly, he adds. "Freezer. Only open the freezer. Euphemia's experiment is in the fridge there. Trust me, you don't wanna open the fridge."

He kneels down a bit, stretches out his hand and Nyubey runs down Norie's back, circling around her legs twice before darting over to Takashi and crawling up the hand where he perches on Takashi's shoulder on the less-punched side.

"And here I thought you'd just end up being decorative once I found out you couldn't grant wishes. You've done a pretty good job, Nyubey." he says, reaching up to scratch the thing behind its ears, causing it to close its odd grey eyes.

"And thank you too, Norie. I really let myself get into it there. This is why I'm glad I wasn't too harsh about your mistakes - I make them too. Shoulda brought cartridges. Shoulda had ready backup." he mumbles.

He leans back and looks at the place. "Shit, she really took it to the equipment here. How rude. I go out of my way to give her decent food and all, and this happens. I oughtta send her a bill."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana races off and returns quickly on her two feet--- rather than waste ability teleporting about with darkness powers--- with an ice pack. She infact, didn't open the fridge. "Um."

"...do I even want to know what's in the fridge?" she asks. "If it's so dangerous, why don't you just launch the fridge at that apartment you were at?" she asks.

She offers the icepack to Takashi's face and holds it there. She doesn't press ultra hard. She'll release it if Takashi makes a grab for it though. She places her hands back down in front of her, clasping them as she head tilts. ".....did you keep someone prisoner?" she asks.

"....huh."

She's thanked and she shakes her head. "I was worried when... I came back and the lab was a mess and couldn't figure out where you went."

"Um." she says. "Right. I'm sorry I wasn't in the lab earlier when it happened, but kind of got into a fight and I lost my arm and had to heal in the Dusk Zone for a bit." she says softly.

"Oh, right, Sky Jack is straight up trying to kill me, now." she says. "So I'm probabably going to need to deal more with that eventually." she asides.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi doesn't actually reach for the ice pack. The fact that he's not trying to be hyper-self sufficent would be a testament to his injuries if Norie was more empathetic. "Cause' it's Euphemia's experiment." Takashi says with a shrug. "She's still a damn good office manager and one or two rocks short of an avalache, so I figure I let her have her little oddities."

"Prisoner's a strong word. I kept her isolated so she wouldn't interfere with an ongoing experiment with her presence." he says, adamantly. So yes, he did keep her prisoner. "I guess she got away, but the experiment was almost complete anyways. If you ever find yourself in the situation, keep a good bit of distance from Sailor Jupiter. She's got a mean all the hooks."

"I guess she found her way out when I was observing the experiment. It moved faster than I was expecting. Just a real cacophony of errors. Makes me wonder if I'm getting sloppy." he admits.

"Hey, I'm just glad you showed up at all. I didn't have anyone on spotting duty and got lucky. I guess my Mother's still watching over me." he says, with a sigh. "I should've been dead. Thought Sailor Moon was going to round on me and try to rip me apart with her crystal right there."

"But I didn't die, so another day another try tomorrow." Then he looks up at Norie. "Sky Jack? I've only run into him a couple of times but he didn't seem the type. If he's actually trying to kill you that bears investigation. That's not normal hero behavior. Or you must've really gotten under his skin. Anyways, I'll have see if we can give you some temporary throughput increases through your bracer..."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana frowns. "It's a long story. The short of it is. We both shared a friend. Said friend let me drain her. He didn't like that, despite knowing this fact- that she allowed me to-- without issue at all. He stepped in during one of these drainings--- I ended up taking too much in the fight and she fell into a coma. It's not my fault he's a jerk who can't mind his own bussiness." she spits.

She crosses her arms, a little angry now that she thinks about it. She listens. "Oh. So you were just keeping her out of the way and she didn't like that any. Okay." she says softly. "Still. Sorry...."

She took a seat on a table and leaned forward a bit. "Hrm..." she says. "Crystal? Is the crystal a bad thing?" she asks. "I need to read up on these people." she purses her lips.

She head tilts. "Huh?" she asks looking down at her bracer. She shrugs a bit and looks back at Riventon.

"They're probably upset. Did they know where this place was before? Because no doubt they do now...."

"...do you think they're silly enough to try to do something like attack or something?" she asks wearily.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi nods, and when he looks up it's not as much Takashi but the stern, harsh look of Riventon there. "Heroes who poke their noses into places they don't belong, ending up causing more trouble than would've occured had they turned the other way. All too common. Part of the reason why I don't trust them and why usually it's easier to blast first and ask questions in those situations."

"Right. She was apparently really, really upset judging by the scale of the damage. Lost a lot of work here. It's going to mean I'm going to need to send Retrivers out again to drain energy to keep things back on schedule, speaking of those who'd call themselves 'heroes' doing far more harm than good."

"Be really careful around Sailor Moon, too. She can channel an immense amount of energy with a little crystal she has. She tapped it to a Nullheart and it pretty much lost its grasp on reality itself. Terrifying power, and completly at odds with ours. If she touched either of us with it, I think we might shortly thereafter cease to exist. It's... a problem I'm working on. Extremely carefully."

"Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if we got another visit soon. I certainly think they're stupid enough to make the attempt. But I'll have some surprises in store for them. They broke a lot of stuff, but more of it's replacable than you'd think - I was able to artificially replicate a stone close enough to the one they tried to have you acquire and I think that'll earn me enough favor to get most of the equipment replaced in short order."

"I'm more worried about the Nullheart Frames she wrecked, but nothing for that to be done but to go out and get more energy."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana listens. "Sailor Moon....." she strokes her chin. "Alright, Riventon-san, I'll be careful." she says softly. She closes her eyes and sighs. "So it's that kind of threat. Yeah. I'll..."

"I'll be careful of that." she says softly a little transfixed as she sighs a bit. There's a pause. "I'm glad your okay, Riventon-san." she says softly. "I mean. Except for the black eye. I wish I could help you with that. But. Um. I dunno if applying dark energy to a bruise helps it..." a pause.

"Does it?" she asks.

"Probably not. I mean. You'd done it yourself by now." she says.

She points. "What is that thing anyways?" she asks motioning to 'Nyubey'. "It looks like the thing that used to to follow my friend around trying to get it to make a wish..." she says. "But it's different" a pause.

"And kinda cuter." she insists.

Norie probably has a skewed view of cute.

"Hey...."

"What's a nullheart anyways?" she asks.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi shrugs. "I don't know if does, but it just hurts and it's a cosmetic concern. It'll go away on its own. Hard to justify spending energy on it right now with so much on my plate and so much we just lost around here." he says. "And maybe it'll remind me to use my brain for planning to get into fights as much as experiments." he says, obviously annoyed with himself.

Nyubey walks hops off Takashi's shoulder, stretches, and promptly falls over sideways like walking is too much effort. In other words, it's very catlike. "That's Nyubey. It's just a name I think is cute. Really, he's a Nullheart Kyubey, but that doesn't sound adorable or anything, and I figured he earned a nickname after saving my butt."

"I was hoping I could make wishes on it, but the Universe wouldn't be so kind. As far as I can tell, as far as he knows, he doesn't have any powers. He can talk, but that takes energy and he doesn't have much to begin with. Something about the way his soul interacts with Dark Energy."

"So I pretty much just think of him as an hyperintelligent mascot. Rather appropriate for a research divison." he says, reaching over and playing with his paws.

"Okay, quick explanation. Normal people are animated by positive energy, and heroic types channel their emotional energy, with the positive energy and bam - fire from their hands. Youma are different, they lack organization like 'people' do. They're just angry, sentient conglomerations of negative energy."

"A Nullheart is essentially built like a soul, but instead of positive energy, it's made from negative. I use it to test things. I guess a good way to explain would be if you baked a cake, but you replaced all the sugar with salt. It might look like a cake, but it wouldn't taste like one."

"Nullhearts look like whatever I've based them on, but they're not. The thing is, because they're so close, when they're in the presence of the original, they can sorta... resonate off of them and pick up on things. But if I made a... Kukai Nullheart here, it'd be pretty much basic and boring - Wouldn't know anything special. Put it next to Kukai, and it'll start finding whatever his deepest fears are and using them against him."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana listens to this description.

'Angry, sentient conglomerations of negative energy'.

Remind you of anyone?~ I wonder who~ Shut up.

Norie Okana seems to twitch a moment as she takes a moment to think. "So. Copy souls that kind of build off fear." she purses her lips. She thinks about this a moment. "What was the purpose of building a Jupiter clone then?" she wonders. "If you're going to keep the original locked up?" she asks softly... leaning forward a bit curiously.

"What was the experiment? To see how close they could get to the original by themselves?" she asks. "Or...? Um. Something else?"

"....I'd be the worst scientist..." she remarks to herself.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi laughs. "No, the worst kind of scientist wouldn't even ask the questions. That's what all the work is based on, questions. Even the simple ones give you a foundation. It's better to ask basic questions and get answers than assume you already have them." he says.

"Well, Jupiter's was special. I built it a new way using her energy directly. It was more and less than a Nullheart at the same time. It provided a... reasonable approximation of how Sailor Jupiter would act if she was filled with negative energy. Since it was made up of mostly her energy it didn't need to be close for resonance."

"It showed how much stuff she was keeping under her hat, the feelings she had that she wasn't expressing. And it showed how far she'd go to acheive her goals if she wasn't afraid to do it. I was impressed, I expected her to go youma. But she didn't. She had the willpower to try to enact her desires."

Norie Okana has posed:
See! Willpower! ha! Shut up.

"Oh, so.. you made a copy of her if she was like... you or me then?" she asks curiously as she head tilts. "What kind of point were you trying to prove? That they're not special just because of what they use?" she asks as she places her hands back down to either side of her.

"Or just 'they can be jerks too'." she says.

"Cuz I don't need a fancy experiment to tell you the answer to that. It's 'Yes they are'." she insists.

"I can prove it. Because Kukai." she insists. "He exists so it's correct and proveable." she insists.

It's hard to tell if she's serious or not.

"Hey... uh." a pause. "Have you talked to Shiniko lately? Something is off about her." she says. "...and she's able to travel into the Dusk Zone like we are now..." she says softly.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi shrugs a bit. "I don't necessarily experiment to find a defined answer. Sometimes I just need to know what happens in general, without having a defined plan. For instance, this gave me a lot of information and data I wouldn't have access to otherwise. But I think the point was... to show them how people are when they have the same energy I have, I guess, and show by comparison how much control I have. I'm honestly not sure. Sometimes I just do stuff to see what happens." he says with a grin.

"Well... I knew Kukai was a jerk when I met him. He's a rude ass." he says, sharply. "Don't need magic to tell me that." he snaps. Of course, Takashi is either leaving out or forgetting some of the things surrounding that event.

"No, I haven't seen Shiniko in a bit. Last I heard she was taking contracts from Hannah more often. But if she's ducking through the Zone she's on our side, at least until I find out she's not." he comments, pragmatically. "Still. That's also worth looking into. Probably something to do with her book."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana nods. "She's been acting odd. Less giggles." she says softly. Like that explains everything! A pause. "Right. Is there anything I can do to help this mess? Or is that a job for the uh..." what to call the youma workers. "'Security Detail'." she uses the best word she can think of for the task.

"Dunno what's still useful or what's trash." she says as she scratches her head.

She head tilts. "Oh, so no 'real' reason. Alright." she purses her lips. "I wonder why that Nullheart went to that apartment. Who's apartment was that?" she asks. "I remember that white haired guy..." she frowns. "But the others weren't familar. Were those uh. 'Sailors' you were mentioning?" she asked.

"I didn't get a good look at everyone." she says. "I was kind of preoccupied trying to make sure they weren't going to charge in on you. I don't even think that wall of energy I put up would had even protected me with how many there were there...." she frowns. "A green one, a blue one, the red one, the blonde one, the white haired guy. The brown haired guy..." she taps her chin.

"Yeah I really need to learn names..." she says as she purses her lips with a frown. "Cuz I'm pretty sure 'the red one' applies to like 25 percent of these jerks." she mutters.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi shakes his head. "Don't worry about it. That's the whole point of having grunts - to do grunt work." he says. "I might have a project I can use you for. I need some transmitters placed around town. Secretly. Trying to get an array up. I'll explain later when my head doesn't hurt."

"I think it went to the apartment to kill Mamoru Chiba and free Nephrite from the duty of having to guard him." he says, simply. "I might've had to step in - it was getting close there." he says, then after a pause he adds a hasty explanation. "We don't need that kind of heat on us yet."

"And the girls with them were the Sailors, yeah. I got the punch and the headache from the green one."

"Names are helpful. Good for making sure the right person gets the right insult." he says with a wink. "That way you can keep em off their game and win. But... nothing works without proper, correct planning. That's what I learned from that little escapade."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana purses her lips. "Sounds like you couldn't plan around crazy not-youma clone Jupiter then." she says softly. "I mean. It seemed to be acting on it's own so that makes sense." she says as she crosses her arms a bit. She head tilts. "I can do that. I tend to be good at sneaking around when I'm not being obvious and draining energy. People pick up on that flare easily." she says. "Sometimes too easily..." she mutters.

She sighs and shakes her head as she jumps down off the table. "I'll be waiting for that order then. Just gimme where you want em and I'll get it done." she beams.

She begins to walk out the door... then stops and turns and bows. "Remember, Riventon-san, I'm always willing to help. You're only one of a couple people who kept thier promises to me..." she says softly as she gently turns back around and leaves without much more fanfare.

She felt useful tonight. That's...

Well it's an acceptable feeling.