1063/In Which Aoko Blows Things Up

In Which Aoko Blows Things Up
Date of Scene:	01 December 2014
Location:	Heaven or Hell Tower <HoH>
Synopsis:	Psyber and Aoko bond over weird talents.
Cast of Characters:	253, 591

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Psyber (253) has posed:
    While most dates would consist of someone going to a nice restaurant, maybe dressing up, and some music... well, we already did that last time. That's boring if it happens every time. Who would wanna play that out?

    Instead, the next time Psyber calls upon Aoko, it's less of a romantic get together and more of a curiosity-solving session. Psyber is up on the third floor of his building, having spent a large chunk of his time reinforcing the already reinforced walls and triple-checking to make sure the building could handle this. Which brings us to the actual premise:

    Psyber, who is hanging around wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, sent Aoko probably the most simple text message ever: 'I wanna watch you laser stuff. Explain how it works.'

    And now there's dozens of targets down range, ranging from small and coin-sized, to human-sized cardboard targets, and even a few watermelons for explosion messiness.

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    A normal person would worry this has TRAP written all over it.

    Aoko already has a foot in the elevator by the time any such thought can even begin forming on the surface. This is completely literal, because she doesn't take too long to burst into the room with a grin on her face, shutting the door behind her.

    "Psyber! Hahaha, you know the way to my heart! This sounds kind of one-sided though mhm. Won't you trade? If I show you things you have to show me things too!" Psyber's used to Samael, he can handle Aoko.

    Predictably she's wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, also.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "'I'll show you mine if you show me yours'?" Psyber asks of Aoko, ignoring the obvious innuendo of thes tatement as he watches her burst into the room and make such a declaration. He lets his hands go into his pockets and laughs, enjoying her rather quirky nature. And it's true, dealing with Samael means he's not TOO put out by the statement.

    "Very well. What would you like to see in exchange? Holy Knight tricks? Gun play? My weird conceptual scar? I'll let you take your pick, anything you want."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "I wasn't thinking that far ahead!" Aoko says, still grinning. She really wasn't either. She figured he'd offer something interesting and she could pick then, but even that requires effort, so she goes for the easiest route:

    "Pick and surprise me! But, why do you want to see my magecraft? It's nothing interesting, you know. Insert mana, collect laser! There's no complicated ritual or anything. That's why good magi would judge me for using such primitive tools, but I'm okay with that."

    She steps towards the edge of the safe zone of the shooting range, glancing at all the targets. "Ah, geez, you sure want to make me work too. Will you make pew pew noises for me?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "I dunno, because it's cool? Most mages I've seen from your world use a complex technique like tracing or gemcraft, that kind of thing. You just punch lasers rapidly. It's an anomaly, I guess, so it fascinates me?" He nods a couple times, stretching out and then saying, "I guess I wanna see why it's only you."

    But she did say he could pick, "Okay, I'll combine two and show you my special thing." Psyber draws a handgun from the small of his back where it was tucked into his waistband, "So. Check this out." He twirls the gun and says, "Cleansing Shot."

    He fires off a bullet that strikes a watermelon to seemingly no effect at first. After about 15 seconds pass, however, the watermelon's Doom effect kicks in and it sort of melts into a puddle, "A lot of knights use holy swords. I can use a holy gun~."

    His moment of showing off aside, he rocks on his feet, "Fine. I will make lasers for you. But if you tell anyone, you're dead meat."

    And sure enough, once she fires off the first laser or two, he's going, "Pew pew! Vwooosh! Brrrraaaam! Bzzzzz!" In time with her shots.

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    At least, Psyber won't have to be humiliated very long.

    After the melon promptly gets Doom'd, she eyes the dozens of remaining targets, mentally registering their location. This only takes her about five seconds of being quiet, but that's a big change from how chatty she is.

    "Turbine, set~."

    There's a ruckus; what few Magic Circuits the magus has, start spinning so quickly they make noise like jet engines. It would be hard to count the mount of bright blue orbs that suddenly form in the air; there's one for every two targets or just about, aligned so each beam can hit two. It's completely unfair, yes, if Psyber expected her to shoot from where she's standing.

    The orbs hover in place a few seconds, small spell circles keeping them locked in place. They kind of look like flowers, with all the triangular lines and runes hovering around. "Circuits, connect. Deploy~."

    The room is flooded in blue light, and the targets taken out two by two, although quickly enough it might as well be all at once. Red hair trails behind Aoko as she spins in place and turns to look at Psyber, still grinning.

    "There, there! Although, your trick was cooler."

    The noise form her body has already died down completely, although there's probably quite a bit of blue fire and heat in the room if it wasn't fire-proofed.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber takes a few long moments to be amazed at the fact that Aoko just sounded not unlike a jet for a few moments. He knew the woman was strange, but that's a pretty bizarre trait. And the fact she flooded the room just like that is equally bizarre, leaving Psyber taking a moment or two to just murmur a stunned, "Wow."

    Luckily for Aoko, while not fireproof, the room has a fire surpression system! After a couple of seconds, the area downrange lets out a slight ringing noise and a damp foam starts to try to take down the fire before water tries to clear the foam out down a drain. Unless the fire is very resistant, it should be pretty simple. Also lucky for Aoko: The sprinklers are area-sensitive, meaning that she didn't set off every one in the room and get herself and Psyber damp.

    "I dunno!" Psyber finally manages to say, looking towards her, "I'm pretty sure your trick was amazing. I've honestly never seen someone do that before." He reaches out a hand to clap her on the shoulder, "So what's the secret, really? How come you can do something like that?"

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    The flames are just flames! And blue.
    RIP the flames, the sprinklers triumph.

    "Huh? Nah, nah! It's nothing special. It's just lasers! Pew, pew. Ah, well~. Since you're asking me nicely. I don't have a lot of Magic Circuits, see. I guess a normal magus would have anywhere between ten and thirty? Really good ones could go all the way up to fourty! I have like, five. Maybe! I didn't count. But, they cycle really fast. So, say a normal magus can produce a handful of prana every few seconds, I can do that every fraction of a second or so. My magecraft is still really primitive, but I kind of cheat and have more juice to put into it than most."

    Right! She points at Psyber.

    "Your turn! How does your special holy stuff work?"

    She could have just paid attention and figured it out herself. Probably. Maybe. But asking is way more fun.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber seriously tunes in and listens to Aoko, "I see. So it's not that you have a high capacity, but you can do what you do more OFTEN. Interesting," He says, rubbing at his chin with his free hand, "You can operate at top power for a lot longer too, I wager."

    Psyber leans back a bit as she points at him, not wanting to get poked in the face with a finger, "A while ago, after the first time you vanished, some shit went down. I went to a mountain to see someone's Magic Mountain Ghost Dad. He gave me a quest of self-discovery about my paranoid beliefs in betrayal.

    "The lesson about, you know, not being as bad about it as I used to be resonated with an ambient power source I'd hijacked into my body from before that and allowed me to tap into a native power of that particular world." Psyber smiles a bit and says, "Short version: I had a spirit journey that lets me channel holy energy from my personal concepts into various effects that I can impose upon people, such as Stop or Doom."

    "Nowhere near as cool as being a smokin' hot Overclocked mage."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "I don't know, I don't see a smokin' hot magus around, just this lame third-rate one! I'm sure whoever that is appreciates the compliment, haha!" She doesn't seem too taken back by it; either she's used to flattery or she just can't fluster easily. Probably the latter, she seems too carefree to turn red... ever. Making people fluster, though, that's more up her alley.

    "So a spiritual quest huh. Sounds familiar! But ah, that'd be telling~. I bet it was awesome! So you got some sort of holy artifact jammed into you and now you can use it like a battery? I bet it's super compatible with your nature as an angel too."

    She flips back to herself, briefly. "And yeah, I don't think I can really run out of power. Or at least, I've never been in a situation that made it happen. I fought the True Ancestor once! We kinda held back because she was with company at the time. Plus, I wouldn't wanna anger her, she'd be serious trouble if she took me seriously. That's why I prefer being thought of as just a third-rate magus. Makes everything easy if nobody has expectations of you!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Something like that. It was a gem that my body later just... incorporated. I guess that's also why I make a halfway decent Master for Servants despite having no spellcasting," He laughs at her, rubbing the back of his head. If there's one thing he can appreciate about Aoko, it's that he always feels a level of relaxation.

    "I can dig the... deceptive expectations thing," He admits, leaning against a wall and watching the woman, "It's why I tend to play low key a lot. Make them all think I'm all action or whatever." He waves a hand, trying to find the words to explain it, "Then I get to surprise them all with a brilliant plan once in a while."

    He tilts his head at the mention of a True Ancestor, "So do you know actual martial arts, or do you just wing it? I bet I could teach you some boxing, bit of karate. Mixed with lasers and energy, it might be interesting."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "I had a friend in high school, he taught me some martial arts! Mostly kung fu and... a bit of something he called Snake. Capital S. He didn't really teach me a lot of it though, it was way too complicated for me. Saw him using it once though, it was something alright. The kind of style that can make your heart burst without actually puncturing your skin. Oh! But, you know, when I went my own way I kind of figured some styles out on my own. I stopped counting after the tenth, but I haven't mastered any."

    Mostly, she doesn't have the focus, discipline and attention span to master a martial arts style. "I wouldn't mind extra training though. And ooh? You're saying you have a mastermind brain hidden behind the action hero facade? That's deceptive! Does it ever actually work?"

    Anecdotes, she demands anecdotes.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "I wouldn't call it a Mastermind brain. I'd just say I like to pretend to not be as smart as I actually am," Psyber corrects, "I'm no Nathan Hall or Elliana Fairchild. I just tend to like being able to look for avenues others don't see."

    "But I do succeed sometimes where people think I shouldn't," He notes, scratching the side of his head, "I helped Arturia and Mordred settle their differences as father and son. Uuuuh..." He pauses to think again, "I've helped a lot of magical girls, but that was someone else's plan that I just helped." He rocks back and forth on his feet, "I guess I'd say that I try to show people that it doesn't always have to be status quo. Nothing is set in stone."

    He grins and then throws a slow and playful punch at her, "For martial arts, I'd say... boxing and kickboxing. Handstrikes and footstrikes. It'd mesh best with your style, I bet. Lots of hitting power backed by a nice blast of laser at the end."

    He tilts his head, "What about you, though? You want anecdotes of my mastermind, but you've managed to be in the Multiverse a couple months and you're working with a Grail Servant, you've gotten on the ins with a major organization, and you're starting to get involved in a lot of major goings-on. I bet you're just waiting to squeeze your bosses for extra cash. Or some pretty big favors."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Psh, months? Try years. But yeah, you're still right, I guess I have a knack for ending up weird places. I wouldn't call it being smart though, it's more like being lucky. Reeeeeaally lucky. Like, disgustingly lucky! But, also, I just love getting involved in stuff. I'm curious! It meshes well with all the stuff going on. I don't think I have a secret besides that!"

    Favors, though. Aoko shrugs.

    "Nah, nah. I don't pile up favors. The Association just pays me to stay out of trouble, that's good enough. Sometimes I go ask for more travelling funds but nothing serious. I don't think I have any pull!"

    Technically a lie, she could probably yank the Association around pretty hard, although how much of that would be her and how much would be her asking Zelretch nicely... it's not like she has a reason to, though. What the magi do is none of her business, and it's nice like that.

    "Boxing and kickboxing I have bases in! I have to use stuff that puts emphasis on my hips and ribs, that's where most of my magic flows from, although at the speed it does it really doesn't matter, hehe."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Both of those fighting styles use a lot of hip and torso movements," Psyber says, taking a boxing stance and then throwing a few jabs as he rocks his body, "Stick and move." Then he throws a couple kicks with some decent agility.

    Lowering his hands a moment or two later, he dusts them off on his pants, "Someone like you could combine that reinforcement magic with some laser blasts, really get a guy good." He clenches his hand and playfully does another punch motion.

    "Not a bad career, though. Get paid to stay out of trouble while working for a guy who pays you to show up at the same trouble he does? You get paid either way! Sometimes twice." He DID give her his paycheck from the Dorothy incidents, after all.

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "It's true! And yet..."

    Aoko empties her pockets by turning them inside out.
    Nothing in there.

    "I'm awful at money, hahaha~. Oh! Reinforcement. I'm really good at that too, since it comes down to passing mana through your limbs, and I sure have a lot of that to spare. I don't really like boasting though. I hadn't gotten to trade blows with a Servant before a few nights ago, but if what that dark version of Arthur can do is in the top tier like his legend would suggest, then it turns out I could probably outwrestle her."

    She grins sheepishment. That was boasting. Ah well.

    "Well, you know. Third-rate magus and all that, maybe it'd be my last mistake to try that. If I had to pit a magus against a Servant-tier entity I'd bet on the Servant a hundred percent of the time, no exceptions."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Well. I can't guarantee I'll keep you rich, but as long as you're around me, you at least won't ever have to sleep in an alley," Psyber says, his own hands coming to rest in his pockets as he rocks on his feet a little, thinking over that fact, "Your Servant has settled into the tower well. And killed the morale of a DVD Player as well."

    "So you're estimating yourself as Servant-tier? That's pretty impressive." He confesses, thinking it over. He doesn't say too much beyond that on the topic of her toughness, switching topics, "What a very interesting third-rate Magus I've begun hanging around~."

    "At least I can trust you go never be boring and bookish like I hear some are."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "You said book!"

    Aoko produces a book.
    It is a random book about horses.

    It immediatly bursts into flames in her hand, the blue fires generating enough heat you could-- hey where did she get those marshmallows.

    "This is the best rule I ever invented and stuck with."

Psyber (253) has posed:
    The half-angel really has no reaction to this. He simply stands there, dumbfounded and watching Aoko roast marshmallows over a book.

    "I suppose that proves my point well enough."