Scene #2614: Dancing With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight

Owner	Pose
Marisa Kirisame	A few weeks ago, the Heaven or Hell office building was subject to a vicious and utterly unpredictable attack! Who could have ever expected that the high-speed projectile that smashed through the Archive's wall would have turned out to be an utterly incomparable Laserwitch!? Nobody, that's who. Unless you can see the future, in which case you're probably cheating. Now, though, it's almost impossible to tell that anything could have happened at all! Almost impossible in the sense that there is now a small workspace set up against what was not too long agao a ruined wall. A few glass panes are set up to separate it from the rest of the library, and to act as splash-guards for what clearly appears to be a huge, stereotypically witchy cauldron. Something is in fact cooking today! It smells of cinnammon! And... mushrooms? Marisa humms an upbeat, if terribly narcissistic tune as she shovels a set of diced, black caps into the broiling pot. It changes from blue to green, and then to neon pink as she caaaarefully adds a single lump of what appears to be black moss. There are a few books propped open on a nearby counter as well. Fortunately for Nate, none of them are his. It seems, however, that Marisa's decided to try out her brand new cookpot with a similarly fresh recipe! She seems pretty relaxed about it, at least. That's... Probably good, right!?
Kyra Hyral	Despite the VIOLENT ATTACK Kyra Hyral conducted in this library months ago on Nathan Hall, she is not that infrequent a visitor to this particular library. Since it was the Heaven or Hell library in particular, the volume of books on the supernatural was higher than most. Being a pretty model student when she's not off harassing people with tranquilizers or ruining the day with Wild Magic, she frequents this library fairly often. However, she has not visited it since Marisa conducted her brazen raid of the facility! She is well aware that a hole was blown in the side of the building by the invader. She fully expects to see it but when she arrives, none is to be found. The hole has been repaired in the affected area was renovated to include a (old-school, in Kyra's book) laboratory complete with big-ass stereotypical cauldron. She peers at the new area from around a stack carefully, taking note of the occupant and her equipment. She sniffs the air, recognizing the spice cinnamon, and nodding appreciatively. She spies the books on the table and grins mischeviously. Darting out from the stacks suddenly, Kyra swings by to scoop up one of the books. "YOINK!" she cackles, "Turnabout is fair plaaaaay~!"
Marisa Kirisame	LITTLE DID KYRA HYRAL KNOW that Marisa Kirisame is just crazy enough to install COUNTERMEASURES. Well. Sort of countermeasures. Countermeasures called 'keeping a box of laser at hand.' "Wh- hey!" Marisa yells as one of her alchemy books is UNJUSLY STOLEN AWAY. There's a low whine as she brings up the Hakkero, "This is a (possibly) dangerous experiment! And Nate'll add to my tab if it goes wrong! Give that back! Stealing books is MY thing, and I stole that one fair and square!" Her eyebrows and face form a pefect D:< underneath her hat. It's almost kind of comical.
Kyra Hyral	"Adventure rule number fifteen! Stealing a stolen thing is totally okay and completely justifiable!!!" Kyra calls over her shoulder with a grin on her face. There are no actual adventure rules (well unless you live in Kalos maybe) but it somehow felt like a totally slick taunt at the Chemist-thief. Yeah. Kyra just assumes that one of Marisa's jobs is Thief. She looks over her shoulder at that little octogonal box in Marisa's hand. Normally, she wouldn't be too intimidated by it but it's making an obvious 'power up' whine sound that Kyra is vaguely familiar with from other weapons. "Uh oh...!" Kyra takes EVASIVE MANUVERS and makes a right-angled turn at the next break in the stacks to the parallel stacks.
Marisa Kirisame	"That's not even at all true!" Marisa cries, kicking shut a valve to slow the cauldron's boil. She hastily tosses in a few ears of coppery-red wheat before scrambling out of her little enclosure. In one hand, she has her LASERBOX. In the other, she has a... broom? Marisa tosses the broom to the ground. It clatters flat! She hops, she lands, she... /takes off!/ "I just spent last weekend reorganizing those stacks," Marisa growls, flicking her Hakkero through the air. With a quick pivot, it somehow lodges in the fluffy flare of bamboo at the business end of the broom. "I'm not doing it again! Get back here before I catch you!" There's a loud, full CHOOM as the Hakkero ignites. Marisa twists, performing MAD BROOM DRIFTING down the corner Kyra turned. She presses her hat to her head and kicks the accelerator. Laser Witch has changed modes! She is now ROCKET WITCH. "I need to see what the next steps are, damnit!"
Kyra Hyral	A laugh escapes her as she sees the broom. "Really? /Wow/, that's-" Well Alexander Academy is not Hogwarts. There is no mad respect to be had flying around on a broom. "HAHA you actually use it! WOW, THAT'S...that's /kind of fast/, shit!" Kyra makes another sudden right turn, divering through another perpendicular opening through the shelves like some kind of white mage version of Centipede. In the next row, she turns again, circling (or more like rectangling) right back the way she came. As she runs, she picks through her mixtures clasped to her belts-well, explosives were right out because setting the library on fire is probably grounds for dismissial. But on the other hand... One particular flask is pulled off and thrown behind her. When the glass breaks, a gust of wind is released down the length of the stacks, essentially a bottled aero spell.
Marisa Kirisame	"Of course it's kind of fast," Marisa answers between grit teeth. "I'm the fastest in all of Gensokyo!" Except for Youmu. And Aya. But Youmu cheats and Aya doesn't count. She pivots, drifting again to try and catch up with that damn, wily white mage. Only to be intercepted by a windstorm!? A book collides with Marisa's face, which, combined with the wind, almost sends her spinning wildly into a shelf. But this isn't the worst storm she's flown through. The witch rights herself, twisting through the air like a leaf in the breeze. A flare of magic at the back of her broom sends her rushing through the Aero spell. When she emerges, pinpricks of light are whirling through the air around her. "Stop running already! I don't want to shoot, but I'll shoot if I gotta! EARTHLIGHT RAY!" Marisa ducks, willing the motes of light to lance outward. All of which... Slam into the ground directly in front of Kyra. They remain there as ominous blue spheres, just waiting for their master's command. "You don't wanna know how bad those hurt," Marisa warns, closing the distance in a burst of speed, "Now hand it over!"
Kyra Hyral	Right now, Kyra's looking around for the next direction to go in. Right now she runs in the middle of the stack, boxed in with only forward to go if she wants to get away from an agressive witch! But then Marisa casts a spell forward that drops a bunch of ominous energy balls in her way. She finally stops and looks at them curiously. She doesn't get much time to consider and murmurs something under her breath. It ends in 'Reflect'. Then she turns to face Marisa, book held in one hand. "Come on! COME AT ME, BOOK THIEF!"
Marisa Kirisame	Stopping when there's a witch on a rocket broom chasing after you is a good way to let aforementioned witch catch right up... And then some. "You want it," Marisa smirks, her knees bending to brace against her broom's bamboo shaft. "You got it." Another CHOOM rocks the bookshelves. Words seem to pop right into Kyra's head! --BLAZING STAR: 20% OUTPUT-- A plume of magical flame erupts from the Hakkero, sending Marisa hurtling forward at frankly unreasonable speeds. She dips, holding her hat down with one hand, while the other reaches for the broom. She pivots, she drifts, she kills the power before she lights a shelf on fire! Finally, she POWER SLIDES the flat length of her broom straight at the White Mage! IS THIS REALLY MAGIC!? Not especially. This is a crazy witch on a far-too-durable broom.
Kyra Hyral	In Kyra's defense, she was expecting lasers. Like from the ominously glowing energy spheres that sit right behind her. Another option would have been to dispell them but Kyra wanted to see the HILARITY of this mage having her spells getting reflected RIGHT BACK AT HER! MWAHAHA! She was not expecting her to actually try to crash into her. When she realizes that this is exactly what's happening, Kyra yelps and flings herself low to the floor, dropping the book in the process and trying to get underneath the dangerously swooping witch! Reflect won't do anything against physical attacks after all.
Marisa Kirisame	It's a good thing Marisa can't exactly change directions on a dime once she's committed to tackling someone at approximately stupid velocities. The laserwitch goes careening over Kyra's head. But, even if she can't swivel around to give it another go without racing to the other end of the library and back, she CAN do... something else. That is, she can flip herself over, hang upside down from her broom, and snatch the book off the floor as she goes screaming over a prone Hyral. Gotta love that increased item-collection radius. "What the hell were you thinking?" Marisa growls as she comes to a stop at the /other end/ of the Earthlight Ray field. "Who steals a book from a witch in the middle of a brew!? That's just ten kinds of--" BLURBLE "...Oh no."
Kyra Hyral	"-aww!" Kyra pouts as the book is snatched away from the upside-down witch. But at the same time, well, at least she didn't get hit with a broom. The Hyral stands afterwards and puts her hands on her hips. "Hey, you weren't actually using the book at the time! If it was, it would have been /open/ to something. So don't pull that kind of thing with me-" she starts, completely missing the point of the scolding. The ominious bubbling noise cuts her off. "...uh." She looks back in the direction of Marisa's cauldron of stuff. "...what is that?" she stands and automatically starts running back to the co-opted corner of the library.
Marisa Kirisame	"I have bookmarks! The pages I need are all marked! Aagh!" Marisa groans, scrubbing vigorously at her forehead with one hand. "Keeping them closed keeps any goo from splashing onto the pages!" But that's not the problem here! The problem is that WHATEVER IT WAS that Marisa was mixing up is making some very, very unpleasant noises. She hurries back over towards her workshop, her broom carrying her as fast as she can possibly go without wrecking anything or anyone. When she arrives, the situation is... Grim. But also so very, very Pink. The fluid in the cauldron is bubbling and frothing up past its mouth, but it doesn't just overflow. No! What appear to be HANDS and a SLIMY HEAD are emerging from the pot! But... But what does this creature- this abomination of chemistry- want!? "BOOOOOOOKS" Oh, well, that answers that. "Damnit," Marisa cusses, "I spent all afternoon on that batch!"
Kyra Hyral	"I didn't see any bookmarks in that book!" Kyra shoots back. She didn't look for bookmarks so it's TECHNICALLY TRUE. Unaided by a broom, she's second to arrive at the frothing cauldron. The pleasantly pink frothing cauldron. As she nears it, she sees the HANDS and HEAD. "Oh, you created a chemistry abomination." Kyra states, digging through one of her pouches. "I know how that goes. Happens /all/ the time. Especially while I'm cooking too. ...you were cooking, right? That's the reason for the cinnamon, right?" Casually, she strolls over to the caudron. "So what's in it again? Maybe you can just poison it and be done, right?" Oh no, she's already uncorking one of her flasks that contains OMINIOUS PURPLE LIQUID.
Marisa Kirisame	"It was SUPPOSED to be an experimental damage-proofing potion for ALL THESE BOOKS," Marisa growls, tucking her own underneath her hat. "What the heck do you do to make monsters when you're COOKING?" Probably unspeakable Hyral things. Everyone knows that whole family is cursed in the kitchen. The pot-bound slime creature burbles and flails as Kyra approaches, reaching greedily at her for BOOOOKS. "As for ingredients, I threw in a whole bunch of mushrooms from the Forest of Magic. They weren't supposed to make the thing LIVE. And they probably wouldn't have if I'd gotten to finish!" Marisa sighs, rubbing her forehead, "Ugh, I know that stuff is volatile, but I didn't think it'd be this bad."
Kyra Hyral	"Uuhhh..." Kyra trails off, "It's hard to say where it goes wrong sometimes! But it's always spectacular!" Little does the slime monster know, Kyra's not actually carrying any books on her. Unless a mPad is considered a book, which it might, because that's where she keeps all of her ebooks and class notes. Carrying around textbooks? Pfft. Never. "Oh come on, hurling around ingredients from a place called the 'Forest of Magic' is just asking to create some kind of crazy homonculus thing!" Kyra pauses then puts away that one flask, reaching for another, "In that case, poison is probably not affective. I do have an anti-plant, anti-fungal mixture though! That might help~" She is way too cheerful about this potential disaster.
Marisa Kirisame	"Hey!" Marisa frowns, "I LIVE in the Forest of Magic! Most of the time I don't end up making horrible pink blob monsters!" She sighs, carefully sneaking around behind Kyra towards what appears to be a reagent cabinet. "Though most of the time I don't get interrupted in the middle of things by a crazy whatever-you-are." At least Marisa is considerate enough not to take things when they're still in use! Most of the time. "Just... Ugh, I don't know," she fishes out a little bottle of what LOOKS like rainbow-colored powder. "I'm just going to set it on fire before things get any worse." SPEAKING OF GETTING WORSE. The pink blob-monster's tendrils detect literature! If Kyra isn't careful, they might just start wrapping around her precious mPad to drag it straight into the pot!
Kyra Hyral	"Most of the time. Meaning you have made horrible pink blob monsters before!" she chimes in accusingly, pulling a smaller vial out of one of her bandoliers. "If that's the case, don't you have pink blob monster contingency plans? I know I had to put them into place after an...incident." The way she says it almost makes it sound like someone met a terrible fate at the hands of some flan (the dessert) monster. The mPad is contained within Kyra's backpack, which looks like an adorable fuzzy moogle. It rests slung over her left shoulder, meaning the monster will have to reach into that to snag the coveted mPad. Meaning Kyra sees it flexing pink tentacles at her left arm and pulling on her backpack. If it's an especially smart monster, it might be able to grab the zipper and pull it open. At that point it'll also find it has to contend with a significantly screechier schoolgirl. "AIEEE GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF MY STUFF!!!" she squeals, hurling the anti-fungal mixture into the cauldron and immediately trying to get away. She's at least smart enough to know that it's going after whatever's in her backpack instead of her.
Marisa Kirisame	"No! This is the first time something like /this/ has happened. Most of the time the pot just explodes or someone turns into a cat or something," Marisa answers, setting a few glass vials aside. Each one is filled with some variety of colorful powder or liquid. At least one glows in colors that the human mind is normally incapable of comprehending. It comes of as plaid. And then Kyra screams. "Your wha--" Marisa's eyes widen as the purple vial tumbles down into the pot. She immediately ducks, and then rolls underneath a nearby table. The reason for such a reaction is obvious the moment the two potions mix. Pink becomes red, which drops suddenly into inky, greasy black. The ooze blurbles ravenously, rising high as a mass of foam like some kind of slime mold growing out of control. Parts of it catch fire as they droop too close to the cauldron's flame! There's a zzzzzp sound as Kyra's backpack comes undone, but it seems somewhat less interested in that now. Because the ooze has suddenly switched targets, and is instead reaching for Kyra's head!
Kyra Hyral	The screaming intensifies. First it is rage as she hears the backpack start to unzip. Now freed of the antifungal mixture vial, Kyra's hand reaches up to grab the backpack to hold it shut. "MARISA KILL IT WITH FIRE!" she finally shouts before the reaction happens and... Oh dear. Fire is not helping. FIRE IS MAKING IT WORSE. The color is a huge clue to that which reminds her of the deadly Black Pudding of her home. Even moreso when it the thing starts reaching for her head. The white mage backs away, stumbles, and falls onto her butt as the ooze reaches for her. She wails as it latches onto her hoodie. Another thing is pulled from her belts, this one looking more like a grenade. Technically, it is, and she uses it as such by pushing a button and hurling it at the cauldron. A few seconds later, it starts releasing copious amounts of liquid nitrogen.
Marisa Kirisame	LIQUID NITROGEN, the most inert of ALL liquids. Also, really freaking cold. The frigid substance blasts into the jet black and quite-on-fire ooze, acting as a freezing agent and fire extinguisher all in one. Kyra sees the goo-creature's face congeal into a hateful scowl as its pseudopods reeeeaach for her face. But slowly, surely, the thing stops moving, even though the whole frozen mass has managed to draw itself halfway out of the cauldron. Marisa soon emerges from her under-countertop emergency hidey hole with a bubbling bottle of dangerously colorful fluid. She wastes little time in chucking the vial straight into the mix. For a moment, nothing seems to happen. And then the ooze spontaneously dissolves back into an ambiguous, frozen, grey-green sludge that burbles helplessly in the now quite filthy cauldron. "Jeez, wasting good azoth on... That," Marisa groans, rubbing her forehead, "Man. It'll take me a week to make some more. Ugh." She glances down at Kyra, and flashes a quick thumbs up. "Nice work with that icy stuff. Just don't ever steal my books while I'm brewing again, kay?"
Kyra Hyral	When fire doesn't work, Kyra tends to set things on ice. It works for a surprising number of things, hence why Kyra's built these special time-release grenades. Cyrogrenades. With the monster's tendrils freeze, some grasping her hoodie, some looming dangerously in her face. At that point Kyra backscoots out of its reach, wrenching her hoodie free. Marisa's dangerously colorful fluid makes her flinch. "What the hell is an azoth?" She stands, adjusting the backpack and re-zipping the zipper. "Fiiiine. I won't steal your books while you're brewing." Next time. "So what's an Azoth?"
Marisa Kirisame	"It's what you get when you mix just the right amount of the right kind of mushroom, and let it bake under a full moon," Marisa replies, shrugging as she goes to haul her cauldron from the stove. Presumably to be cleaned. Or maybe incinerated. "My azoth isn't /real/ Azoth though. That stuff is super rare, also you might have to be some kind of alchemy god to make it. This one's just a really good solvent." "ANYWAY." "As payment, you," Marisa Fonz-points. She doesn't know who the Fonz is, but she can sure point like him. "Get to help me replace all the reagents I just wasted! 'Cause that stuff wasn't cheap! The Otyugh Pollen alone was... ugh, I don't even want to think about it."
Kyra Hyral	"Oh, it's one of THOSE mixtures." Kyra says, wrinkling her nose. "There's so much of this 'bake in the moonlight never expose to the sun' stuff going on out in the multiverse, it's kind of silly. I wonder how that stuff is supposed to work..." The fingerpointing gets a huff from the white mage. "I'm Kyra Hyral! White mage, chemist, and eventual doctor! I am also one of Heaven or Hell's medics before you think you can get me thrown out of this library!" She crosses her arms over her chest. "I /guess/ I can help you."
Marisa Kirisame	"Well, it can be exposed to the sun just fine once it's done. But when it's cooking, it's moonlight or nothing. Gotta extract the transitory essence of the moon and shove it into a liquid, you know," Marisa acts as though she knows a thing or two about celestial magic. She actually kind of does, given how much she uses. "And I'm Marisa Kirisame," the witch replies with a smirk, "A perfectly ordinary magician. Also a Laser Witch extraordinaire. Good to meet you an' stuff. I hope you know how to handle mushrooms." There will be a LOT of mushrooms.
Kyra Hyral	"Yeaaah...that probably makes sense on some worlds." Kyra shakes her head, "It's never been a thing on mine." The hazards of coming from a world without 'proper' celestial bodies, it seems. Not that Phoenix Fire or Phoenix Downs aren't things. Kyra scoffs, lifting her head, "Of course I know how to handle mushrooms! Both the regular ones and the man-eating variety! What sort of chemist do you take me for, Marisa?" Seems Kyra will not be intimidated by the witch.
Marisa Kirisame	"The kind who interrupts very delicate alchemical experiments because reasons," Marisa replies with a huff. She knows your kind, Kyra Hyral! She knows because she often does basically the exact same thing. Except when Marisa does it, it's perfectly acceptable. HYPOCRISY. "Anyway, you should be fine. Just be careful of the youkai and watch for ambulatory fungus." The witch shrugs, "But, eh. I'm sure you know that, so I won't worry."