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Kayoko Kirenai	By the end of this week, Chevalier Vermillion will no longer exist.     In some ways, she already doesn't. With Meika unable to transform properly, Chevalier Cobalt has been left in charge of the defense of Kagoshima against the endless threat of Temptations, and the struggle of being a one woman shield for the entire city is not one that Kayoko is adapted to. Some months ago, while Meika was preoccupied with causing the Walpurgisnacht at Lobotomy Corporation, Lilian extended the offer to have her subordinates, Satsuki and Arina, lend Kayoko backup on particularly harsh neights.     Thirty-two nights with Temptation attacks later-- documented and recorded in neat, color-coded pen ink-- and Kayoko was forced to call on them again, slightly too late to prevent a split. It's hard to call any night where a bloodied girl who's only just celebrated her seventeenth birthday has to fight a colossal humanoid monster 'normal', but there are at least expectations and precedents set in place from years of experience. Last night, however, was strange enough that the information that Satsuki and Arina relayed to Lilian was worth calling an-- unsanctioned-- Elite investigation into the events.     Without the Holy Refulgence looking over your shoulder, it falls to Kayoko to remind you: Please do not disturb the city with your arrival. There are no Elites, no magic, no non-humans, no anachronistic tech, no monsters, and no magical girls in Kagoshima, as always.     The facts that justify the investigation are as follows, communicated to all of the incoming Elites so that they know what they're getting into: » Last night, while Kayoko and the two Immunes were fighting the pair of Temptations, some event happened. » According to an audio log hastily recorded, in response to Satsuki and Arina's Immunes psychological training giving them awareness of the memory-altering effect, one of the Temptations was sourcelessly torn to shreds by a series of metal blades piercing it from the inside out. » Theoretically and in practice during previous missions to Kagoshima, Elites have had resistance to the memory-altering effects of Temptations, so long as they witness the event in question. Information expunged before they were around-- such as the previously destroyed gym on school grounds used as a base and meeting place for the magical girls and Sister Kurokawa-- is uneasily inaccessible. » Despite this, Satsuki and Arina can't remember the details of what specifically happened anymore, only that some external force took out one of the Temptations, and can only trust the recording they made. Additionally, Chevalier Cobalt *at the time*, last night, saw the same thing the Immunes did-- they remember asking her the question and getting an affirmative-- but now, if asked to explain the events of the night, remembers that she was the one who defeated the Temptation. » As far as any of the three are aware, this was the only oddity of the night, and their memories of the fight are otherwise unaltered.
Kayoko Kirenai	In the evening in the more suburban areas of Kagoshima, the streets aren't so oppressively busy that you're forced to endure the familiar prickling dread that each pair of eyes on the street is scrutinizing you somehow. The trip there, out the warpgate and through trains and buses, isn't any different from usual, but there's at least a little relief in stepping out into an empty bus stop and having moments to breathe without other pedestrians constantly crowding and staring. The sun hasn't yet set, keeping the muggy air heated and alive with the sound of insects, as you make your way to the location where the abberant Temptation was destroyed.     A scoured chunk of ground behind residential homes is the first sign, and splintered trees on the steep hillside above. Through the ripped-up fence blocking off a small power plant, into the yard where Kayoko is waiting, the edges of the cavity blown into the side of the concrete building slough down as if temporarily reduced to jelly and then solidifed, heatlessly. 5r    Scattered around and embedded in the dirt is a fire hydrant-- your eyes glaze over it at first, processing it as meaningless automatically in the back of your mind. Sticking out of the wall of the building is a perfectly normal light pole. A swingset dangles from a broken tree branch and a pipe sits at the end of a ditch driven into the earth.     None of those things are right after even a moment's reexamination. Sprayed around the site of the damage are dozens of razor sharp, pure metal blades, as if all launched outwards from some central origin point. Looking at them and purposefully thinking about them is uncomfortably difficult, like your subconscious mind is constantly urging you to brush it off as something normal and acceptable, similarly to the sensation of being guided into the destroyed gym.     Kayoko is waiting outside the yard, even though she could walk through the destroyed fence at any time, because she'd feel uneasy about being in a restricted work area alone. She's not transformed, of course, since as long as Temptations aren't around to conceal her, Chevalier Cobalt doesn't exist in Kagoshima. She wears a long white dress with a pink cardigan over top, hair in her typical ponytail draped over her shoulder and accented with slight golden jewelry.     "Um, first of all, thank you Dame Commander. And sorry to have... bothered you with this." She does not look particularly enthused by a team of Elites-- few of whom she'd trust-- digging around for information. It's reasonable, but she doesn't like it.
Kale Hearthward	> Please do not disturb the city with your arrival. Of course. Of course, of course. Always with the same warning, if not from the Refulgence then from one of the sisters. Kale's been following it. It's the cost of entry to do anything here. It still just... rankles to be told it. With his homeland stripping away parts of his identity, being reminded to suppress the rest of it feels more raw than usual. And also... he's just tired. "Greetings, Chevalier... Kirenai," he says, in greeting, trying and not entirely succeeding in suppressing a yawn. "Sorry. Rough night." He's human, in civilian garb. Perfectly normal. Nothing unusual. You wouldn't feel uncomfortable letting him take out a loan to buy a house. Then over to one of the blades. The effect pushes against him, but he's an ocean - there's a lot to push against. One might as well push against the tides. "That's... interesting..." He crouches down near one, and after a moment pulls out some thick gloves - a medical responder's gloves - which he uses to try picking one of the shards up.
Angela	Out of everyone at Lobotomy Corp, it's probably Rose who is the most concerned about what's going on in Kagoshima and the one who is most determined to lend a hand. Lobotomy Corp has been a little leery of getting further involved with Kagoshima due to the general propensity of Lobotomy Corp interference only causing more trouble--trouble they'd like to avoid. But not everybody at Lobotomy Corp is particularly eager to just kind of let time wash away all of Lobcorp's problems with Kagoshima Magical Girls and most of them are in Central. Rose, assisted by Tiphereth have been sent on this unsanctioned (except by Tiphereth) mission into Kagoshima. Angela is aware but not interfering but is pretending not to be involved until she gets a better view of things. The Manager is struggling with the imposing will of another version of him seeking to devour him by pounding his psyche with dreams of suffering and regret. It's not exactly going great over there either. Rose seems to have recovered some from the Corrosion incident, though she's still not being allowed to wear the Courage EGO Gear anymore and is stuck wearing the Red Hooded Mercenary EGO Gear. Her red eyes still look irritated and occassionally drip green acid tears that don't seem to harm Rose's face. Her horrible scarred 'smile' remains but she has her hood up to help obscure her features and a scarf to prevent her mouth from being seen. In her hands is an Ekephalin Reader because she is hoping to uncover some truths behind what's going on in Kagoshima in the hopes that it might help someone, anyone really. Tiphereth is processing what the scanner detects. Notably, she no longer has her 'child' form typically associated with the Cognition Filter but is instead in her 'robotic' state. Her voice still sounds young but she can't really help that--her voicebox didn't magically change during Walpurgisnacht. Memories not quite matching with evidence even on those who were presumed to be immune to such alterations is the biggest lead anyone has had yet. Rose pulls lightly on her hood and says, "Howdy." to Kayoko. "Here to help with the investigation. Brought the latest Enkephalin Reader to try and lend a helpin' hand," with a western (movie) drawl. Rose's weapons are readily hideable in her cloak as is her scanner which she figures she best bring out only when they have something to point it at... Which she does, acutally. Huh. "Dame Commander, we're here to provide Info support." Rose says, glancing towards Kale as he reaches towards those strange shards that she keeps forgetting to scan. But training kicks in when he reaches down to pick one up. "Hey--careful about that! It could be dangerous!" She says, drawing out that scanner to run it over the metal bits without actually reaching out to pick one up--she is being liberal with the device considering the situation but it's altogether possible it won't pick anything up from metal shards--she has no way of knowing since she's not sure what she's looking ofr. Either way, she's a bit wary of getting 'altered' further so she won't get too close.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"You think we'll stick out?" "No more than usual. Why?" "Don't know! Just getting a weird feeling after what Kayoko said. If somebody's messing with memories, then whose word can we even trust on any of this?" "We can trust our eyes, at least. There's bound to be some kind of traces around that nobdoy could just forget about." Joining the investigation today are the trio of Ritsuka, Mash, and Jeanne! They've gotten used to the constant pressure of eyes on them since their last few visits to Kagoshima, and they're even dressed the part to look like they might belong... Somewhere? Somewhere in school with Mash and Ritsuka both wearing black blazers and skirts over white button-ups while Jeanne has her blazer tied around her waist by the sleeves messily. After glancing at the debris and blades scattered all over the place without a second thought, they make their way over to Kayoko and company. Ritsuka greets everyone with a hearty grin and broad wave, Mash opts for a more reserved hand raised in a shorter wave, and Jeanne... Doesn't have her usual smug grin? No, Jeanne looks distracted as she keeps glancing back at the debris. Just not the blades, because they're probably not important, but most certainly at the rest of the stuff stuck in places they shouldn't be. Ritsuka and Mash only have enough time to utter a quick "Hey, Kayoko!" and a brief "Good evening!" before Jeanne gets right to her own questioning. "Kayoko. Do your fights usually end up with so much stuff thrown around?" Jeanne eyes the light pole sticking out the building, narrowing her eyes at it before turning to the pipe. "I always figured you'd be more careful than to leave so much evid-" Rose calls out to Kale, and Jeanne finally looks at the blades for more than a second. "Oh. Was that there before or after the fight? Do be careful not to step on one of those."
Tamamo	Not only has Tamamo committed to maintaining an appearance of normalcy, but, this time, she's taken the extra step of researching 'normal clothing.' Of course, her usual magic is already in place, convincing anyone looking at her who lacks specific protections that, whatever she looks like, it's 'normal.' Those tall ears? Normal. Those tails? Normal. Those eyes? Totally normal. Still, it's easier for minds to accept when there's not too much distractingly different about her.     Thus, research. Tamamo arrives proudly sporting ripped, washed jeans, in a fit that could have stood to be looser only in retrospect, soft leather boots, and a sleeveless white blouse that leaves just enough gap for her tails to comfortably sit between the belt and hem lines.     Upon arrival, she spends a little time looking from one pedestrian to another, brow growing increasingly creased with concern. Eventually, she tugs at Lilian's sleeve. "Lilian, was I misled? Were these not said to be the most normal of all? Ah, matching the fashions of the 1900s is difficult, after all..."     After a few moments, "That aside, it seems yet stranger to me that there should be maintained such secrecy. One may say, 'this is not the time for such a discussion,' though I hardly know of when a time may occur, if such is only ever placed further into the future. Even with measures taken to avoid such, there is a curious feeling of being ever watched, here. I wonder as to why this contradicts not their masquerade."     But then, they're at the site they're to investigate. "Hello, ah--" Right, she's not 'Cobalt,' right now. Kayoko, unlike Meika, hasn't mentioned to Tamamo so much about her address. "--Kirenai-san." Tamamo's voice is as pleasant as ever. Suffused with sunny warmth that doesn't at all reveal any of her worries. "This is the site, yes?"     Given the opportunity to poke around, she begins by tracing lines toward a 'center.' The details are hard to focus on, but her divination sidesteps that. Even if she isn't aware of the signs, herself, she can still trace the threads of significance, the ties of cause-effect at a level non-physical. This will lead her to 'something,' even if she doesn't yet know what it is.
Flamel Parsons	Look unassuming, look normal. Look natural. Flamel Parsons can do this, to some degree. He can look like there's no elites, no magic, no non-humans, no strange technologies, and no magical girls. He *cannot* look like there isn't an Agent of a Vague Yet Menacing Government Agency here. That, in itself, breaks no masquerade. But maybe it's not entirely in the spirit of things that the car he drives around normally is a surveillance van with multiple dishes, antennae, and other obvious indicators on top of it.     It's important to note here: Despite being a Psychonaut, Flamel has no innate greater resistance to the mental redactions than the other Elites, so when he arrives, he's here with... well, it looks like maybe the gear of some type of city worker. It looks like he might be checking for buried pipes and power lines, or something like that, with his three large, metal-detector-esque devices (two under an arm, one active and sweeping). Unfortunately, it's making a mix of geiger counter noises and high-pitched whines whenever it detects areas of intense psychic residue of stress, pain, mental distortion, and other signatures. His clairvoyance enhancers give this a bit too spooky of an energy.     But, he put on a high-vis vest over his jacket, and he's holding a clipboard while he does all this. That will render him, ironically, almost completely invisible to any civilians, with the obvious exception of about 10% of retiree men -- they may line up near the edge of the area to wordlessly observe work of some kind happening and go home, remembering nothing.     Once he's able to get a mental grasp on the blades, he actually externalizes it, turning the mental-blade-recognition into an external psychic construct by yanking it out of his own head in a gleaming massk, and plugging it in like a cartridge into his scanners. "You were right to call me in!" Did someone call him in? "Self-destructing psychic data needs an expert's hand to figure out what was there, before the confabulation ruins the forensics. We're looking at someone, or something, who's not just invisible, but actively, maybe even cognitohazardously, resistant to memory. I need to find psychic residues on the frequencies for the visual center, the temporal lobe, and just past that..."     He waves the scanner near Kayoko, and it makes a whine and geiger-counter-click-storm that precisely corresponds to her current level of misery and stress, whatever that may be. It *may* overload and burn out, but if it does, he just keeps that beaming smile going and switches to one of his backups. "We're looking for someone who's using, or hijacked, a process that occurs between perception and memory storage. Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Flamel Parsons, agent of a vague yet menacing government agency. We've been working together on the Bern issue, but I never really got to know you like I know Meika or Lilian. Speaking of which..." He turns to Lilian. She's probably here, right? "I was hoping I could get a chance to examine the brains of the affected Immunes, if I can get that clearance. Are they holding Circle secrets that are classified worse than what I've already got implicit clearance for?"     Back to work. Back to sweeping and looking like a just-a-little-bit-too-strange government worker.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Instead of her usual garb, Madeleine is wearing an angular black suit with a white shirt and a thin black necktie. In lieu of the normal platform boots she's opted for a pair of block heels. She's carrying a bag shaped for an upright bass but which likely contains her spear, and she has a camera on a strap around her neck. "Kayoko," Madeleine says, nodding in greeting. "Temptations don't normally leave anything behind, right? Like, blood or ichor or whatever. Whatever did this nonsense with the blades, buncha little cuts like that? Funny thing to do to a creature that won't bleed. Mind if I take some photos, by the way?" She taps the side of her camera for emphasis.     "Things don't just explode into knives for no reason. But I've got a couple ideas. You were there, right? And you're immune to the whole... memory thing. So if there was a fourth person there, who caused the whole blade explosion deal, they were doing it from out of sight. I think I'm gonna do some skulking of my own, see if I can't find a good hiding spot with a view of all this. Maybe whoever did this left a trail. Oh and, uh, one more thing. Why were the Temptations here? Was their first target somebody who worked at the plant?" After Kayoko answers her questions, Madeleine leaves to do just that - climbing up fire escapes onto rooftops, slinking through bushes, anything that she'd think to try if *she* were interfering in a fight at the power plant.
Hibiki Tachibana	She does not look particularly enthused by a team of Elites-- few of whom she'd trust-- digging around for information.     That's her. She's the one. That darn not!magical girl who has zero investigatory skills. Though to be honest, Hibiki doesn't seem especially surprised to get that reception from Kayoko even that aside.     Just like she wasn't that surprised to have the usual pressuring, lingering feeling on the way here, the one that always comes with walking through Kagoshima's crowds - the one that was distantly familiar, even before first stepping foot here. Of being unwelcome. Even coming in the blazer-skirt-and-tie of Lydian's uniform doesn't help that. But if those looks would be enough to stop her, she wouldn't be here.     She still doesn't know what'll end up happening with Meika, in the end. But she does know that if they don't figure out more about the Magical Girls, about Temptations-- there won't be any helping her, much less other Magical Girls after her. Including Kayoko, a year from now.     "...Hey, Kayoko. Not sure how much help I'll be, but I here to lend a hand too, if that's fine." Well, all that's one thing, but what they were told during the lead-up to this is really worrying in a different way. Cobalt remembers being the one defeating the Temptation, but the recorded evidence doesn't add up to that... and if one of the /Magical Girls/ has had her recollection of the incident tampered with, that's really not good. At all.     Hibiki needs a thrice-over of the site before the wrongness sticks in her mind, but when it does, she slowly moves forward up next to Rose, knees bending to duck down for a closer look at the metal shard she's scanning without getting in the way of the machinery. She gave her a wave on the way in, by way of a silent hello.     "Probably after, if I had to guess," she murmurs to Jeanne, although not as a replacement for Kayoko herself answering. "Metal tearing the Temptation from the inside out... they'd probably end up scattered everywhere after, right?"     Ultimately, she's not going to be able to pick out anything that anyone else visually couldn't, even if that doesn't stop her from looking. She does pose her own question to Kayoko, with a concerned undertone. "...Whoever or whatever did this, they only went for the Temptation instead of anyone else. And if messing with memories was on purpose, they didn't want to be found doing it." There's a brief pause.     "...Since those two being there and taking a recording is why we have somethin' to go off of at all here... is there any chance anything like this could've happened in the past too, and you or Meika just weren't able to realize?"
Meika Kirenai	The buzz of early-season cicadas and late-afternoon tree crickets is a welcome blanket to overlap with shaky bootsteps on thin and cracked concrete sidewalks. Shadows are long, and as uncomfortable as it is to have her own trudging on beside her, Meika is no stranger to grabbing at the slight relief to be found outside, in places with just this little bit less ambient pressure to wade through.     It'd be better if she didn't know what she was walking towards. I should have been there. I could have helped. I don't have pages but I can still fight, find a way to- Only just stopping on the footpath, at the first signs of the Temptation's passing, Meika's breath hitches. Maybe a dog-walking onlooker would think a flying bug surprised her, when she stops. Definitely not the gouged-out terrain.     She knows what a split entails. She's trying not to think about it. She's trying not to think how many of the names that made it onto the list the two sisters carry were ones she wasn't here to help. She's trying not to think just how many more there will be that she'll never be able to know about. She's trying hard not to think about how she has utterly no idea what feeling is right to feel from Kayoko not even telling her who it was, this time.     She's not succeeding.     From the few blocks away, still, Kayoko, of all people, can see the shaky way the girl wipes her face on her jacket sleeve, and pretends it's because of sweat.      When she's finally rounding the corner, heading up towards the torn-up fence, Meika, too, isn't transformed. Not now. Maybe not ever again. Dark circles under her eyes, unmaintained hair, worn-out clothes, garrish band-aids, and dust scuffed boots. Her jacket, in the late-spring heat, is a burden as much as it is a shield. Meika looks awful. Meika looks how she always does. 'Greetings, Chevalier... Kirenai,'     Meika startles, overhearing Kale. Piercing red eyes fix somewhere in his direction, and bile-bitter feelings remind her just how far from unspecific that greeting term is, now. "... Rough night. Yeah. She did have one." Vindictive, turning his comment towards unimplied sympathy towards a sister who likely won't appreciate it. That part's vindictive, too.     Stepping just a bit closer to the fence, and looking around at the unremarkable debris, she takes it what she can of the unfamiliar battlefield. ... A swingset? Did there used to be a park- no, don't think about that.     " ... Hey, Cobalt. I made it." A little wave, not really looking, not that it matters, her sister's way, from some impulse that she ought to indicate some sort of confirmation of being where she ought to be, for once. The other Elites get little ones too. "... Guess I've still got some use, right? Even without pages." Her voice sounds strained.     As if to prove it, while Kayoko still stands, Meika ducks through the broke-down fence without being told, asked, invited, or anything. It matters that it's a restricted area. Meika just figures it's better for her to dodge through first, even if only to break through allegorical ice, heart sinking with every step further in. '... But I never really got to know you like I know Meika or-'     "... You don't really know me, Mister Parsons. We just-" Straying near the other side of the fence, occasionally tapping it with band-aid wrapped fingers, Meika wilts under the exacting terminology Flamel spits out, completely nonsensical to her. There's a slight nervous twitch. "Do you need to *scan* her? That's- I know they all said something's going on, but..."
Sarracenia	Sarracenia does not often get a valid excuse to not wear her royal attire, but visiting a world where elites and magic and all those other things are supposed to be unknown gives her a pretty good excuse. Instead of her heavy, poofy, frilly, red royal gown she is instead wearing a short sleeve white silk shirt with a blazing red vest and knee-length red pleated skirt with black leggings beneath along with red closed-toe wedge shoes. Long black gloves cover hands and upper arms. And instead of her usual golden crown she has a (somewhat) more conservative golden hairband with three large oval rubies set into it.      She has no giant hammer at the moment, nor did any piranha plants come with her. It is just the princess with the long copper-hair, trying to look normal without looking normal.      Why did she come here? She wants to know about this world that is forcing young girls to fight terrible monsters at the cost of their lives or memories or something. Although, an investigation was not really what she had in mind. She approaches the site they have been called to, and curtseys to Kayoko when she sees her. "Hello again, Kayoko." she says, then looks over the scene.      And jumps a bit when she hears Kale's voice but does not see Kale. She blinks a few times, then peers at him. "...Kale?" she finally asks. "How did you...um...?" She looks him over, then coughs lightly and goes back to looking over the area.      She glances over the various uninteresting things before looking over at the shard Kale is trying to pick up. Then tenses up as she hears the Dame Commander mentioned. She knew Lilian might be here, but after their most recent exchange she is almost as worried about Lilian actually trying to kill her as she is about Petra. She looks around furtively for a few moments, but then notices Ritsuka and her crew. She offers a wave to them in greeting. "Hello again. It has been a little while since the dragon fight." she says, then looks to Jeanne. "How is your...daughter? Have you two been in contact since then?" she asks.      Another look over the area and...those objects she wasn't worried about before seem.... Sarracenia approaches the light pole and ponders it a moment. "...does this seem odd?" she asks to everyone but no one in particular, then reaches out to poke it. "...I mean, of course it is odd but...I did not notice it at first. Which is...odd, right?" She does have gloves on, so poking a perfectly normal light pole should be fine, right?      Hibiki also gets a light wave of greeting. And Sarra starts to wave to Madeleine, but hesitates about half way through and lowers her hand.
Meika Kirenai	'... Is there any chance anything like this could've happened in the past too, and you or Meika just weren't able to realize?'     Overheard, not meant for her, Hibiki's line of questioning still resonates as uncomfortably, tangentially close to the same sort of thinking that'll knock you spiralling into uncertainty: There's no way to know whether anything has or hasn't happened, if you can't see it or can't remember it. Don't you think we know that? Meika coughs, interjecting- "... Anything could have, right? Who'd- who'd know?"     "... Kind of a surprise to see you hear, y'know, Miss Tachibana."     Keeping distance, and at-best glaring through the side of her eye, Sarracenia's presence visibly makes Meika wince. Why would you bother showing up, is it some sick sort of- '...does this seem odd?'     "... The streetlamp? What's odd about it? It's- Temptations wreck stuff all the time. I don't know what happened in the fight. Maybe it threw it. Maybe something else happened, or- there's other stuff at hand, right..? That'd be better to focus on?" She shrugs, dismissive. Meika does not seem able to see the blades at all.
Lilian Rook	Lilian, as usual, brushes off the pleading request to fit in. It's hardly as if she has to be told again. After all, she isn't a non-human, she isn't a super techie, she isn't a monster, she isn't a magical girl, and she thoroughly agrees that there are no Elites.     She is cursed for her hubris by Tamamo's outfit, because she is really struggling to be normal about that.     'Ah, matching the fashions of the 1900s is difficult, after all...'     "Huh? You're gorgeous, what are you--" Wait, that's not the point. "Isn't it the two-thousands here?" Lilian asks, suddenly gut-confused about the time period she already knew prior to five seconds ago. "It's still within the realm of normal. And I won't let anyone annoy you anyways! So relax."     'That aside, it seems yet stranger to me that there should be maintained such secrecy'     "The Temptations themselves already enforce their own secrecy. If the church doesn't at least try on their own part, things start getting very strange. After all, it's not as if they can reveal the enemy and come clean." says Lilian. "Even if they ever wanted to." she mutters.     Beset by nothing more alarming than having to hear 'wow! how long have you been in Japan?' every so often, Lilian, being a hostile scrutinizing gaze experiencer, arrives without incident. She'd intended to walk out from overseeing Ceri's therapy and wear her idea of 'business casual' here, but ended up having to strip down somewhat to not sweat to death. The process of hopping from !England to Japan, both in April, leaves her jacket folded up under one arm, her hair done up to not stick to the back of her neck, and Lilian vaguely wishing she hadn't worn heels despite those having nothing to do with heat. Even if she gets up the hill just fine, it feels slightly ridiculous in those and a white dress shirt.     Thinking about who she's meeting, 'tired OL parkour' pops through her head in Satsuki's voice, and makes her even more annoyed.     'Um, first of all, thank you Dame Commander. And sorry to have... bothered you with this.'     "I did explicitly ask you to bother me." Lilian says. "I'd rather this than someone being dead." she says for the millionth time in her life, and means it slightly more than average. She takes a minute to smile and wave for Rose, but uses most of it trying to keep all of Angela's agents straight; specifically to recall Rose's specific relevance to an investigation.     'I always figured you'd be more careful than to leave so much evid-'     "She uses light magic. Not this. Which . . ." Lilian breaks from reflexively correcting assumptions on Kayoko's behalf, drops her proxy-defensive tone for a moment, and starts wondering how that will reconcile with Kayoko at all. "You've noticed these as well, haven't you, Kayoko?"     'I was hoping I could get a chance to examine the brains of the affected Immunes, if I can get that clearance. Are they holding Circle secrets that are classified worse than what I've already got implicit clearance for?'     "None of mine, so feel free."     "That's so mean! How can you say that?!"     "Um . . . I'd kind of prefer if my brain stayed in, if it's not too much trouble."
Lilian Rook	The girls have also arrived on-site, at Lilian's request. Less younger-than her than one might expect, Satsuki blends in just fine in the shorts and loose crop top she was already wearing, and Arina successfully looks like her awkward foreign friend slash exchange student gal pal tagging along in a loose-knit cardigan and breezy summer skirt about half again as long as Lilian likes. She doesn't even have to fake being uncomfortable, and her look of only being able to tag along in the wake of her Japanese friend is spot-on! Wow!     "You live like this, Oda?"     "Oh come on, don't call me that off the clock!"     "Ah . . . um . . ."     "And I get to dress like I'm in school while I'm still in school."     "Oho? That almost sounds like you're calling me old."     "N-no, of course not, but-- u-um--"     "Well you're dressed like you're thirty-five and rich!"     "Can we--"     "Miss Tamamo looks like your--"     "Satsuki! Miss Kirenai's sister is here! Be nice!"     All three of the girls turn around to stare at the exact same time. Satsuki glances casually away, as if fascinated by something in the debris. Arina clutches her fingers together, then tries to nervously wave. Lilian's eyes widen when Meika immediately recognizes the street lamp as just that.     "Good to see you, Meika." Lilian lies without thinking. "And Parsons, I'm afraid I have to veto invasive examination of my subordinates until such a time as I can oversee it properly. Let's stick to examining the debris first."     "Whoa. That sounded really really menacing."     "I-I think she just meant watching what he looks at. Right?" "Sure, sure, but like, how? From one of those glass observation decks full of computers overlooking a psychic operating room? Or--"     "Now the way you said that was really weird."     "I apologize. You're correct. You really are in school."     "I'm twenty two!"     ". . ."     Without particularly asking permission, Lilian begins following the trail of destruction towards the hole in the side of the main power plant building, only just not touching anything for lack of true psychometry. Before she goes far enough for her underclassmen to fold in with her, she is dreamily focused on picking up a certain trail.
Lilian Rook	"The recording still registers fine."     "Yes. Which is odd, isn't it? I only really remember part of it anymore."     "You'll get there."     "It bugs me more which part, though. Whatever killed a Temptation has to be its enemy, right? So a human. And we know there's everything but that. So . . ."     "They'd be even harder to pin down than the Temptation itself, if so. It should be the inverse. It would hypothetically seem deliberate."     "It's almost like something . . . sucked all of the 'jamais vu' out of the Temptation for themselves . . ."     "Was that French?"     "U-Um, isn't that the right term?"     "It is, actually. I'm impressed."     "And annoyed you didn't think of it."     "I wouldn't soil my lips so."     "You just said 'debris' though"     "Apologies. I believe the anonymization effect may be interfering. Received: 'I want to do one thousand pushups'. Confirm?"     "Ha--"     "Alright alright! God!"
Kayoko Kirenai	"Howdy. Here to help with the investigation."     Lobotomy Corporation agents. Kayoko feels retroactively justified in her decision to not inform Love of the investigation, even though she'd decided to before knowing it'd be an investigation at all. There aren't good feelings there, and there might never be good feelings there.     Not that you could tell from her polite expression. Maybe the tone of "Thank you," tips her off instead. It's the same tone as she uses to acknowledge Hibiki, in front of an audience. "Kayoko. Do your fights usually end up with so much stuff thrown around?" "You've noticed these as well, haven't you, Kayoko?"     Kayoko is immediately defensive at Jeanne, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I-I think it's fairly justifiable for me to not spend an hour each night picking up debris after each fight, isn't it? Everyone will just see it as normal, anyways, because of the Temptations... I'd rather be studying than taking every streetlamp the Temptation knocks over to the... dumpster?" She's not entirely sure what she'd do with a broken streetlamp. Toss it in the harbor, maybe?     That, of course, answers Lilian's question. There *isn't* a streetlamp here, but Kayoko, true to her word, treated it as normal. She actually, like Meika, isn't overcoming the memory erasure-- which isn't the *only* time that sort of thing ever happens to the magical girls, but it's the only time that anything *since* becoming a magical girl has done that.     "I... um, I'm sure there's something here worth looking into for you, Dame Commander, but I'm not sure what. I'm sorry. Sometimes the aftermath of a Temptation fight gets messy, but it's... no matter how weird it is, the civilians will just see it as normal, anyways." She's been confused about that this whole time but hasn't spoken up about it until Lilian prodded her to. " ... Hey, Cobalt."     "... Hey, Meika." Kayoko lingers for a second, not exactly returning the wave but not pointedly ignoring her sister either. Her head twitches slightly away from Meika, in a way that's intended to appear like she isn't looking, and actually has nothing to do with whether she is or not. "... Get behind someone if it turns out to be dangerous, please." "Hello again, Kayoko."     Kayoko hasn't had a bad experience, or any experience at all really, with Sarracenia ever since attempting to work out an apology between her and Meika, and the ill-fated beach bonfire, at which only Kayoko had a decent time. She's not so dull as to not notice the general seeming opinions towards Sarracenia coming from Meika and Lilian, so her pleased expression melts away confusedly before smoothing out to a polite neutral. "Hello, miss Princess. I really appreciate you helping." "I'd rather this than someone being dead."     Kayoko's smile at Lilian is a lot more strained after she says that. In all the reports and her own request for help, it was always 'one of' the Temptations-- they only ever come in ones, until erasing their target causes them to split. "U-um... yes, I appreciated Miss Satsuki and Miss Arina's help a lot. I... don't plan on needing it again, of course, since fighting alone will just be... normal now."
Kayoko Kirenai	"That's... interesting..." "...I mean, of course it is odd but...I did not notice it at first. Which is...odd, right?"     Kale and Sarracenia poking at the blades doesn't kill them instantly, to mostly relief. The blades are, if pulled out of the ground, ranging from the length of a hand to a full meter long, and seemingly unremarkable flat sharp metal, like simple daggers or swords with the hilts cut off. There's no particular mental compulsion coming *from* them, Kale can tell-- they're not exactly a 'source' of anything, just like the crater in the power plant isn't the source of the effect causing civilians to recontextualize its presence.     What *does* happen, when Sarracenia and Kale are touching each of theirs simultaneously, is a humming that builds up imperceptibly in the air, like tuning fork resonance, and slight vibrations in each of the blades. Kayoko rubs at her ears distractedly; so she's receiving some sort of *stimulus*, at least, but she's not looking at the blades in Kale and Sarracenia's hands as the source. Though, with her, it's hard to tell sometimes. "Hey--careful about that! It could be dangerous!"     Whether they're dangerous or not, the blades' physical properties are fairly simple in the Enkephalin reader's estimation. Pure steel, all the way through, unnaturally uniform both throughout and between different blades. They're sharp enough to draw blood if pressed, but nothing so ridiculously dangerous that you'd feel unsafe even being around them. They read as slightly magical-- are Temptations magical? They have to be, right? "I need to find psychic residues on the frequencies for the visual center, the temporal lobe, and just past that..."     "Um... of course, sir. Just tell me what you need me to do." Kayoko tries her very hardest to not seem dazed by Flamel's babbling, but holding the scanner up near her causes her to flinch away even before Meika speaks up about it. Once no immediate threat comes to her, though, she tentatively subjects herself to the scan, not even sure what he's looking for.     The geiger-counter clicks so rapidly it sounds like static. The sources for it are innumerable, if he actually started probing deeper, but the rate of *physical* distress even on a surface level glimpse of its readings betrays that despite looking as if she got out of the fight unharmed, it's moreso that she's patched herself up to the point of standing and simply illusory coated over the rest. She was already pretty battered by the time Satsuki and Arina arrived as support. "...Since those two being there and taking a recording is why we have somethin' to go off of at all here... is there any chance anything like this could've happened in the past too, and you or Meika just weren't able to realize?"     Fairly convinced that there is something she can't perceive, Kayoko falls silent at Hibiki's question. She slips past the other Elites to lean down at a blade that isn't a sideways trash can, furrowing her brow when trying to examine it before stepping back. "I... don't know, Miss Tachibana."
Kayoko Kirenai	"Whatever did this nonsense with the blades, buncha little cuts like that? Funny thing to do to a creature that won't bleed."     Surely there is nonsense with blades, if an adult says so. There's a more pressing issue, though, that Kayoko actually breaks from her neutrally polite engagement to snap at Madeleine for. "*Miss*. How many other people did you see wearing all black contacts when coming over from the warpgate? *Especially* this time you have to be careful about keeping a low profile, because the Holy Refulgence will be *furious* if *you* attract any attention just because you couldn't bother to wear sunglasses, or something."     She's allowed to take pictures, at least, but Kayoko's knowledge about the rest of what she asks is limited. Madeleine skulks around the site of the Temptation's defeat, hunting around for clues of a fourth person... and there *is*, actually, a trail of large humanish footprints leading right to this location, and no farther. That's because the Temptations are bipedal, though, and there's absolutely no other tracks. The spread of the blades implies that, rather than being launched from somewhere or something, they all originated from the same epicenter and exploded outwards omnidirectionally-- something that would kill a wielder if they were present to cause the effect.     Tamamo's tracing towards the area of most fateful significance leads her... not, actually, to any of the blades, but away from them. The most significant factors present in this scene and what comes after it are... Kayoko and Meika, despite Meika not being present at the time and Kayoko not even remembering the events. Something about this is *specifically* targeted at them, as individuals, and whatever this is is personally linked to them.     Amidst all the fussing and scrounging around, while Kayoko is trying to focus her attention on the pipe at the direction of others, something *else* happens. The strained sounds of exertion from someone who isn't an Elite, huffing and puffing before tossing some sort of improvised rope down from the roof of the ruined power plant and rappelling down the side. A red-haired girl, a teenager and maybe half-Japanese only on a second look, wearing a large backpack stuffed with weird gizmos and magazines that would make Flamel proud over a familiar monochrome school uniform, plops down into the dirt field triumphantly with her finger pointed straight at the Elites.     "Ah HA! I knew there was something strange going on! On the news it said that the *generator* overheated, but that just doesn't add up, you see? You take the paths of the damage outside, try to match up some singular source of the blast, and it just doesn't make sense, does it? And what kind of generator explodes into all that sharp metal shrapnel, huh? Doesn't add up at all, does it?"     "And now...! Even the *government* is here!" The girl places her hands on her hips victoriously, utterly assured in her almost-correctness. "Nice to meetcha, Misters and Misses Governments! I'm Polly Petunia, Captain of Polly's Occult Investigation Gang! So what's with the coverup?"     Then she notices the absolutely petrified casual-clothed magical girl in the middle of mentally calculating if she can get away with suddenly vanishing into thin air. "*Kayoko?!*" "... P-Polly?" "What are *you* doing here?!"     Kayoko looks helpless. What *is* she doing here?
Angela	Rose is the Agent stationed at Hibiki's school ever since a the Servant of Wrath attacked it. She has been involved in the occassional event since then but she was certainly badly affected when the S2 exacerbated her EGO Corrosion! She doesn't really expect to be recognized by Lilian Rook, but the armband (and Tiphereth's presence) indicates she's on the Central team. There is some discussion between Tiphereth and Flamel which encourages Rose to move towards the Psychonaut, glancing at Meika briefly but focusing on Hibiki. "Hey Bikki. Looks like these blades are...a little magic? ... Did they come from the Temptations? Seem like they're safe to touch. Though uh. You tested that already I guess." "Wouldn't that just mean a Temptation destroyed itself for no reason?" Tiphereth asks over the pad, frowning. "Check to see if there's a localized Enkephalin drain or psychic equivalent." Rose looks over to Meika again, then back to Tiphereth. "...I don't think they'll consent to being looked at with this thing, Chief, but shouldn't they be immune to this mental trickery? She probably should've seen the spikes." "Then just check for localizd drain, maybe if we focus the scan it won't get caught up in all that static." Tiphereth suggests. Rose gets to work on checking for that--trying to avoid catching a Magical Girl in the effect but--Speaking of someone who CAN see the spikes is Captain Polly of the what now and the whatsit? ''What's with the coverup?'' "You...can see everything?" Rose asks bluntly in confusion. "Uh. sorry ma'am." She seems to take Polly calling herself a Captain as outranking her. "We're not here to coverup, we're here to ... uncover up. Beggin' your pardon." She taps her forehead twice with her index fingers before going back to taking readings. "You uh. You pals?"
Tamamo	Despite Lilian's assurances, Satsuki's mysterious statement causes Tamamo to continue second-guessing her choice of attire. It takes Lilian saying that Satsuki is the type to get herself into trouble on purpose to reorient her thoughts away from the self-conscious, at which point, Sarracenia and Hibiki flattering her is well-received. Ritsuka causes a fresh twinge of mixed feelings, before Lilian freshly assures her that jeans are universal. However, she had been trying to fit in... Just where could she have gone wrong...?     'Isn't it the two-thousands here?'     "Is that not a rather too broad labeling?" Tamamo misses the point twice, but doesn't appear to notice.     The conversation between her and Lilian about Meika's current disposition occurs over a private key, and is owed the short, but noticeable, delay before she greets, "Ah, Kirenai-san." It's not confusing, because the direction of her attention is abundantly clear.     She's pointedly looking toward others present -- Sarracenia, when Lilian calls her a creep, and Flamel, who has the natural gravity of a vague yet menacing organization that performs invasive mind scans, and Hibiki, whose present status as a magical girl she's not as sure of -- and not toward Meika, when she says, "It is a surprising number, and more so, variety, who have gathered here, today, no?"     Presently, Tamamo's investigations reach their unexpected conclusion, as she seems to walk in a focused yet aimless manner about the battlefield, mysteriously gesturing as if pulling or pointing to something, only to wind up standing near the sisters again.     "Oh, how strange. It does seem to be--" And then Polly happens.     Flamel Parsons says, "Oh-- anyone want to handle the cover-up, or should I?"     "You are not, however, local. On the other hand..." Tamamo looks toward Kayoko, sees how she's frozen up, and finishes with an, "oh, dear."     It takes her a little more to realize what that is about 'blades,' having not actually tried to look at them at all up to this point, and another moment from there to, with some audible regret, say, "That may be acceptable, Mr. Parsons, if--" her eyes shift to Lilian, "--no other wish to take on that particular task."     She's presently distracted with other thoughts.     "Miss--" instantly corrected to, "Captain Petunia, would you mind explaining what you mean by shrapnel?"     Tamamo pulls out a cell phone from her back pocket, which may very well be part of her outfit, and rapidly taps something out.
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"... before the confabulation ruins the forensics... maybe even cognitohazardously... psychic residues on the frequencies..." "Hm! Hm. Yes, I see..." "You do? What did any of that mean?" "He's an expert brain toucher. We need to leave things clean so he can get untainted info out of all this, and then that'll lead us right to the culprit!" Ritsuka strokes her chin with a satisfied grin as she looks over at Flamel, giving him a quick thumbs up of encouragement. "How is your...daughter? Have you two been in contact since then?" Jeanne pauses briefly, then narrows her eyes at Sarracenia. "Wouldn't you like to know?" She replies without giving an answer at all, then turns away. Ritsuka and Mash, catching on, wait until Jeanne's attention is on Lilian before turning to Sarracenia. Mash subtly raises her hand to her neck in a subtle 'don't ask' gesture, and Ritsuka shakes her head rapidly and unsubtly. "Probably after, if I had to guess," "Metal tearing the Temptation from the inside out... they'd probably end up scattered everywhere after, right?" "She uses light magic. Not this. Which . . ." "Exactly. And unless..." Jeanne starts with a mildly smug tone in her voice as she looks over at Lilian and hibiki, pauses at hearing Lilian's tone, then clears her throat and shifts into a more normal-sounding tone that sounds rather odd coming from her. "... That's what makes this so strange. Unless Kayoko's developed new abilities at the eleventh hour or a sudden urge to renovate people's houses like-" She glances at the lamp in the building. "-this couldn't have been Cobalt's work." "I-I think it's fairly justifiable for me to not spend an hour each night picking up debris after each fight, isn't it?" "Oh, certainly. I just wonder where those little knives came from." Jeanne replies with a light shrug, still feeling something off about their presence even though the memory wonkiness keeps her from focusing on them for long. "A knife factory explosion, maybe." The arrival of the red-haired girl has the trio turning to face her, once again with mixed reactions. Ritsuka's curiously eager as usual, Mash has the mildly curious concern on her face, and Jeanne's eyebrow just quirks up slowly with a slight snorting chuckle coming out of her. "Hi there! No, that's a pretty good bunch of points. We're not with the government, but we're investigating this, too. Did you figure out any other leads?" "Should we really be...? Master, she's a civilian, and this..." "Hmph. Well, good luck hiding all that. Let's just see where this goes, and-" "*Kayoko?!*" "... P-Polly?" That sure gets their attention in a hurry. They all look to Kayoko for answers first, but Mash eventually sidesteps over to Meika and stage-whispers over to her to try and get her attention. "Do you know her, Meika? Do they have a history?""
Hibiki Tachibana	Hey Bikki. Looks like these blades are...a little magic? ... Did they come from the Temptations?     "I don't... think they did," Hibiki says uncertainly. "It sounds like these were used to rip the Temptation apart, and I've never heard of them fighting /each other/. It had to have been a person, right?" There's a pause, and a frown. "Someone able to cover their tracks the same way one of them would..."     ... Anything could have, right? Who'd- who'd know?     "...No one maybe," Hibiki says after a delay, looking up to Meika after a glance and a nod Sarracenia's way. She's not blind to the tension between that and the Madeleine, but it's not really the place to go into it. Especially when seeing Meika here, like this, inspires some complicated feelings. Hearing her say 'still got some use'...     "Other than the one responsible for it, anyway. But I couldn't help thinking about it."     ... Kind of a surprise to see you here, y'know, Miss Tachibana.     Missing out on Meika's lack of notice for the blades only because her head's turned back to one herself, her attention is less on that and more on the question than anything. "I dunno how much I'll really be able to do... but I want to do /something./ I have to." That simple response is what she leaves it at.     With Kayoko's reply though, even Hibiki can finally blink and have the wires touch on something being really off here. Namely that... neither Meika nor Kayoko can see the shrapnel filling the area. "Wait, you're seeing what we saw at a glance...? Meika too...?" If Kayoko was at the fight, and had her memory altered, that's one thing... but both Magical Girls are subject to it? She's trying to wrap her head around why that could be when this gets even weirder.     A civilian.     A civilian who knows Kayoko.     And has not only now seen her as Chevalier Cobalt, but can tell that there's /blade shrapnel/ here, not the mental cover-up they noticed before looking deeper. That's... weird? That's really weird, isn't it? And why does 'Polly's Occult Investigation Gang' sound like the kind of club that'd be right at home at Lydian too!?     "Uh..." Getting called 'Miss Government' gets Hibiki to freeze up, because that's sort of not even wrong, awfully rare for a Watch member. She rubs at the back of her neck awkwardly.     And she looks between Kayoko and Polly, and then to Polly's uniform specifically. The surprise in her voice is genuine when she asks, "Wait, you two are... friends? From school?"
Sarracenia	<J-IC-Scene> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "Your flavor of "help" is why I'm keeping an eye on you."      Sarracenia blinks in surprise, and actually looks toward Madeleine somewhat confused and hurt. "Wh-..." But, she covers it up with anger and a 'hmph!' pretty fast. It's fine. Just another person she thought might be a friend who ended up not. She definitely does not sniff for a moment and quickly wipe the back of a glove over her face as if dealing with some perspiration. And she definitely definitely cannot let Lilian or Tamamo or Meika see that. She wasn't entirely sure of Tamamo's stance on her, but after a bit of radio chatter she can see where she stands. It isn't surprising of course, but Sarracenia is always an optimist (or in denial) about such things until it is fully confirmed. She sidelong glances Tamamo's way for just a moment, long enough to see her outfit and compliment it. And the compliment seems to be well received!      In contrast to being called gross and a creep by Lilian. The start of a smile that was on Sarracenia's face fades quickly to a frown.      Sarracenia mmphs softly at Meika's reaction to the pole, then looks at the pole again. "I...do not really know. It just seems...odd." She sighs. She isn't magical or psychic or anything like that, so she can't really pick out what is odd about all this.      She pokes the pole again, and that tone sounds, and it is only then that Sarracenia's vision fully catches that this is a blade. She blinks in surprise, looks over at Meika in confusion, then back at the blade. "You...do not see it...?" she asks quietly. Not wanting to cut herself, Sarracenia reaches into her purse and pulls out a towel. "W-well, perhaps we should still collect and dispose of all of these items. They are still dangerous. Suppose these things fell on someone, or someone tripped on them." She wraps her towel around the blade in the building and braces a foot against it, then pulls and wiggles it until it slips free. She stumbles back, then looks it over as best she can when her eyes want to look everywhere but at the blade. She's experienced this sort of thing before, and it is just as annoying now. She mmphs softly at the blade, then once it is wrapped she rests it over her shoulder.      Just in time to look very surprised at the girl rappeling down the building. A girl who apparently knows Kayoko. "W-we are not with your government!" Sarracenia says a bit too loudly. Sarracenia laughs a bit then naturally starts her usual introduction. "I am Pr-pr..." She stutters as she remembers they are basically undercover. "...Sarracenia." she says after a moment. "And we are also trying to find out what happened here."      Then, Polly and Kayoko seem to recognize each other. Everything about Polly being here doesn't make sense with what is happening to Kayoko and Meika. "Have you investigated other cases like this, Captain Penny?" She follows suit on everyone else using the title. It just seems polite since Polly seems nice enough.      Jeanne's answer to Sarra's question - and Mash's and Ritsuka's follow ups to it - leave Sarra with a rather uncomfortable look. She nods to Mash and Ritsuka, making a mental note not to ask about it again. Instead, she takes her blade toward another blade. Something happened when she touched this blade...what will happen if a blade touches a blade? Sarracenia is about to find out. She approaches the 'pipe' and lowers the 'light pole' and touches them together. Her attention is only half there, though. These blades are so tiresome to look at and she is trying to watch what is happening with Polly.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	How many other people did you see wearing all black contacts when coming over from the warpgate? *Especially* this time you have to be careful about keeping a low profile.     "Oh, snap, I uh, I think I've got a pair somewhere..." Madeleine partially unzips her bag and, rummages around inside. Sundry implements of wilderness survival - a multi-tool, reflective blanket, iodine tablets - spill out as she searches her supplies. "Sorry about the mess, I kinda just dumped my whole backpack in here... aha!" She pulls out a pair of sunglasses and triumphantly holds them aloft, before remembering that she's supposed to wear them on her face. With a sheepish smile, she puts them on.     After completing her sweep of the surrounds, Madeleine returns to the group to report her (lack of) findings. "No sign of any third party coming or going, and I checked all the good hiding spots. What happened here, happened without anyone *causing* it - or it was done remotely. But why would a Temptation just turn into knives? Do they have like, a natural lifespan that can run out? I don't... oh, this is making my head hurt."     On a whim, Madeleine reaches back into her bag and pulls out a compass, trying to see if there's any unusual magnetic properties in the blades. It's only when she turns around to see if the needle spins properly that she notices Polly. "Oh, uh, hi," she says, with an awkward little wave. "Yeah I guess we're uh, I mean I'm kind of with *a* government, right? Is the rest of your club with you, or..." Madeleine looks to the rooftop in expectation of a whole gaggle of mystery-solvers.
Lilian Rook	'I... don't plan on needing it again, of course, since fighting alone will just be... normal now.'     "I hope not." Lilian says, glazing past the swing set. "Assigning one person to defend an entire city is unsustainable. Even besides that, all it takes now is for one Temptation to have a critical incompatibility with your powerset." says Lilian. "If I somehow had my way, there'd be at least eight of you. God needn't be so choosy." she says, with an implicitly 'fucking' evinced second to last by her tone.     Satsuki walks alongside her, and takes a moment to plant her feet, turn and stare, in a way that briefly causes her entire casual affect to vapourize. Lilian exchanges glances with her, then holds, silently, and finally looks away with a reluctant scoff.     ". . . I don't like it when you push away my help. It doesn't make me happy. It makes me worry about you, and wonder if I'm doing something wrong." Lilian says, slowly and evenly, without quite looking. Satsuki seems satisfied, in some way that is surely somehow related. "If you want me to leave then say so, clearly. I can't agree to hanging around while just watching things get worse; if I'm involved, then I'm going to do something. And I don't want to regret it a second time." Satsuki wears a look of puzzled concern, but smooths it away quickly.     'Is that not a rather too broad labeling?'     Lilian sighs. "Tamamo, you're perfect." she says, and sounds distressingly like she absolutely means it.     'I dunno how much I'll really be able to do... but I want to do /something./ I have to.'     "I'm glad to hear it." Lilian says to Hibiki. Cool. Testy. But not particularly hostile. "Seeing as you seem to be in agreement with Satsuki, I'll have to call it our lead theory." Kneeling down amidst the scatter of blades, Lilian looks up from below what she presumes to be the originating point, and traces her gaze along the shrapnel lines. Tapping her earpiece for a second, Lilian listens to a private transmission, then continues.     "It's not beyond the realm of possibility that remote magic based on sympathetic linkage could have been used. I can do a thing or two somewhat similar to this. But then I have to wonder why Tamamo can only trace it back to the two girls we know; and why one of them remembers doing it; only a while later, too." Realizing she's going to have to explain to Kayoko, Lilian sighs, gets to her feet, and--     'I'm Polly Petunia, Captain of Polly's Occult Investigation Gang! So what's with the coverup?'     Arina, directly in the line of fire for questioning, clutches her purse, looks to the left, then the right, then quietly startles at realizing the obvious, and smoothly and professionally says "Um. Hi. Miss Petunia. Ah . . . are you friends with Miss Kirenai?" Nailed it. She's urgently looking to Lilian for approval, and totally not begging her to intervene.     "There isn't one." comes over the sound of clicky heels on asphalt. "And if there were, you wouldn't be permitted to know." Lilian flashes her absolutely not local but technically 'government' card too quickly to be properly looked at (on purpose) and makes an exasperated sound for having to even bother (by accident). "Go home before I call your parents."
Lilian Rook	Satsuki edges over while this is ongoing, waving Kayoko to split off and join her just out of earshot. "Don't look. Act naturally. There's magical equipment still in the area. You and Meika are the only ones who can't see it. Someone may be targeting you." Tapping her own earpiece, she turns around and vocalizes more quietly into the private channel, causing Lilian and Arina to both turn and hold their comms in unison.     "It has to be that it's being camouflaged against the Refulgence specifically, right?"     "It might be. I've even said in their presence that I found it odd that there was only one organization dedicated to fighting these things. If they're worldwide, and the Refulgence isn't, then everyone should be dead."     "Commander . . . it's possible, you know, that Miss Polly may be . . ."     "Hm?"     "Being here, at this time, watching this site for someone to arrive, able to see the residue, we can't exactly rule her out."     "You're correct."     'W-we are not with your government!'     "Shut it, contractor." Lilian says with an immaculately believable roll of her eyes. "If you're classmates with Kirenai, it'll be trivial for me to get your number you know." Lilian continues on Polly. "How long have you been hanging out here? You know you're not allowed."     Lilian, unlike Flamel, has not signed any agreements about the rights of teenagers in relation to psychics. Frankly, she doesn't see any problem with delicately poking around what Polly thinks of when 'waiting here' and 'doing secret forbidden things' are brought up as conversational prompts; the guiltier or more afraid of being found out, the easier for her to find. No one particularly cared about anything that happened to her when she was Polly's age after all, so she's pretty sure a 'young minds act', like everything else billed as protecting children, is something about lobbyists and political agenda.
Meika Kirenai	'Good to see you, Meika.'     "... Chevalier Rook. Hi." Meika's eyes flit between between Lilian and her two subordinates, already instinctively shrinking more into her letterman jacket. Fixing their way for just long enough to address Satsuki and Arina, her voice drops quieter, tinged with more of that pervasive guilt. "... Thanks for helping my sister. And... um, good to meet you two."     It hasn't escaped Meika's awareness that the main reason they've had cause to come to Kagoshima had been her inability to take that effort up, be it from being gone, or from being unable herself to fight the right way. Thoughts stray to the field of 'last night' again, never far from it, and it's like her windpipe clamps halfway shut. "... I wish I could have fought, and helped too. I know I can't, not without pages, not really, but I could still-" It's blisteringly clear she's moderating frustration at not being allowed to, or not being able to. She exhales. There's no sound as Meika's fingers twist at chain-links of the fence. "... I'm still, around, for now." '... Get behind someone if it turns out to be dangerous, please.'     Meika's face flickers first with anger, then shame, then softens out to sour, ambient frustration. "I'm not defenseless. I'll- fine. Whatever. But I'm not leaving." It's kind of sad she frames an unsaid angle to fake her comment being less than a concession. She's lying anyways. 'Wait, you're seeing what we saw at a glance...? Meika too...?'     A confused glare at Hibiki. "Huh? What's that mean? I don't-" 'I just wonder where those little knives came from.'     "Knives? Huh? I don't see anything like-" She shakes her head. "Do you all? R-really? That's-" Pleading, Meika looks to Kayoko to check, whether she is, or it's just her. I'm not fading out, am I?     Following on closer up the hill is nerve-wracking with those thoughts on her mind, but uneventful for the ensuing moments until- '*Kayoko?!*' '... P-Polly?' 'Do you know her, Meika? Do they have a history?'     Meika, too, for the reactive seconds, was in the camp of desperately wishing she could dissapear, for a handful of other reasons too. ... That's- that's Kayoko's roommate, from school. I- Yeah. I know her.")] Meika doesn't add that the last time she'd talked with Polly had been the result of being tracked down and confronted, while out on errands, why she'd dissapeared for three weeks, why she wasn't saying anything, why Kayoko wasn't saying much of anything, why her phone number kept failing to recieve texts.     Meika grimaces, and half-step, conspicuously, behind Mash. Hah. Kayoko said to do that, if it got dangerous. She coughs. "... She's harmless. But- but what's..." 'And what kind of generator explodes into all that sharp metal shrapnel, huh?'     Again with knives, blades, shrapnel. Meika takes a panicked step away from mash, hands tightening around the strap of her shoulderbag. It's fine. I can talk to her without it being permenant, I can try and-     "... Occult investigation? What's occult about a power station- exploding?" It's a slight gamble that Meika being here might give more credence to Kayoko being here, considering Meika's more the type to wander past broken fences for reasons other than interesting photography shots. Her having been talking with the Elites doesn't help. "... It's not like we're too far from home, here," she adds, vague but gesturing in the idea of some excuse that doesn't exist.
Flamel Parsons	Aw, Meika! "What? I mean, we're acquaintences, aren't we? I like to think that means something, even if it's not much. And don't worry about the scanning. You never know what data will be useful!" Such as Kayoko's overall degree of distress. Did something come to her rescue? Did she call for help in some way that received a certain reply? Flamel isn't sure, she's a bit of a puzzle. "Cobalt, this'll be a weird question. But when all that happened, were you... by any chance, were you praying for help?" It's not an accusation, it sounds more like an idle contemplation. A way to get think through some of the ideas. But it feels, somehow, relevant.     Ah, gotta focus on this. There's a girl here! "Hi there!" Flamel Parsons speaks in impeccable Japanese. "You know, you might be right! I'm special agent Flamel Parsons, I'm with the Incident Information Consistency Bureau." He flashes his Psychonauts badge, which he also telepathically massages to seem legitimate. But will that work? As for Kayoko... "Oh, do you two know each other? That's such a funny coincidence!" He fails to explain how, or why. He brushes past how she's here, or why. "Actually-- if you've been studying all this before I got here, I don't suppose I could get a minute of your time for something strange? I'm needing to," He gestures with his scanners again. "Get some data from someone who's been in proximity to the site for a while. You know." He tries waving it at Kayoko again, as if to imply some explanation for why she's there without saying anything of substance. Enough to get Polly to not question Kayoko, but ambiguous enough to keep Kayoko from having too many weird obligations in her own coverup later. "I don't suppose that'd be you?"     How'd she notice the metal fragments? Is that badge going to work on her at all? He needs to get a good look at her brain. He needs to cross-reference it with what he knows about how Meika's works. He needs to see where the influence does or does not manifest, and how. A case study of immunity can make all the difference in figuring out what's happening. Flamel himself isn't immune, just working around it. What's going on with this girl? Hopefully he can get a chance to point that scanner he loaded the shrapnel-recognition into, and get the data... But it'll only work if someone can make a case to her!
Lilian Rook	'... Thanks for helping my sister. And... um, good to meet you two.'     "Don't worry about it. I don't mind at all." says Satsuki. Rummaging through her bag, she goes looking for some kind of snack to give to Meika, considers perhaps this would be kind of patronizing, and so brilliantly decides to unwrap her sugary conbini garbage and split it in half instead, before offering. "You two are always working so hard. You shouldn't be afraid to lean on others every now and again." Chomp.     "It's nice to meet you too, Meika!" Arina's slight pause before her name betrays memorizing trivia about the Kirenai sisters' differencing preferences. "It's a shame we didn't get to before. The Commander talked so much about you that I was kind of excited to go on-call here. I hope everything is . . . as good as it can be, I guess."     Coincidentally, Lilian's expression twitches when Meika starts thinking about 'Kayoko's roommate'. She hasn't even said anything, but Lilian suddenly has that look; like she's trying to ignore something she doesn't have the spoons to admit to seeing.
Meika Kirenai	'What? I mean, we're acquaintences, aren't we?'     A tiny guilty grimace. "S-sure, yeah, but that's- it matters, but it's... different?" She's not navigating out of that well. "... I don't know. I guess. It's- it's whatever. It's not important." 'Don't worry about it. I don't mind at all.'     Meika blinks- once, twice, in Satsuki's general direction. The other girl's calculation seems correct, Meika does accept (after a second of hesitation) the split treat. A soft mumbled 'Thanks,' comes out before she digs in, too. Secondary tactical objective completed: With a mouth busy chewing, she can't argue against the followup sentiment.     "... Huh? You... wanted to earlier?" Genuine surprise crosses Meika's tone as she looks over to Arina. Then, significantly more guilt-stained, "She talks about us like that?" Meika's word choice is often 'us' to things said in a positive light, and 'I' in a negative light, when making assumptions with vague groupings possibly inclusive of her sister.     "Then- then I'm... sorry for the circumstances, that it's been under. I... thanks. Again." Meika squeezes at her own forearm, fingertips tight enough that it hurts. . . . . . 'Don't look. Act naturally.'     Meika is bad at both of those things. {"That doesn't make sense. Targetting us? Almost nobody even knows, here."} Meika swaps to whispering, at least, words only making it to Satsuki, and Kayoko's ever-present lip-reading eyes.     {"It's not something off-world, right..?"} Of course that's not a question that has an answer, but it's been the case a few notable times that Meika's forays out into the rest of the multiverse have tracked trouble back home for everyone. Silently, she winces.
Tamamo	PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo sends, "I looked for strong links, and found some, but only to Kayoko and Meika. Isn't that strange?" Followed by a quizzical (?!) fox emoji. "Nothing so strong to any interloper." Sighing, paws spread apart / shrugging fox emoji. PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "That feels like it has to be intentional." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "The only thing unique to them about this site is that they can't see it." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "If someone intended it, I should have found their traces. If not, they must be hiding from me. Then, it would not be targeted at them alone. It makes too little sense, you see?" PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "It would be easiest to avoid my sight if it were merely incidental; a meaningless accident." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "I . . . see." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "And Kayoko is the only one who seems to believe she was even involved." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "But it's on Meika, too? She can't even transform." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "Just so. But why is it that she cannot transform?" PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "She needs a catalyst for it." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "For her, it was pages from her sketchbook. Drawings of 'Chevalier Vermillion's' design." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "She hasn't been able to bring herself to draw anymore for a long time, I think." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "It is that 'she cannot bring herself to transform,' then?" PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "She doesn't have any pages remaining. She's burnt away all of that childhood dream." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "But I feel like that's true too." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "One could acquire more paper, no? But, she does not wish to." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, ". . . I can only speculate." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo sends, because she's still visibly texting and glancing at the local girls and not talking aloud, "In any case, how curious! An event connecting to Meika, that she cannot see, but is poorly hidden, while she was not here, that defeated a dangerous enemy fighting her sister, while she cannot bring herself to fight, and connects to 'no one else.'" Attentive fox with very tall ears emoji. PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "I think it's that there's no more joy in it for her. She can't depict 'Chevalier Vermillion' in a way she wants to be." PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "Something that she did that even her sister forgot?" PHONE: Lilian Rook says, "Perhaps I should consult Angela's report again. There could be something wrong with her, after the episode at Lobotomy Corporation." PHONE: Phoning Lilian Rook, Tamamo says, "That one of them did somehow do this is what it appears to be, though neither remember, and neither seem capable of doing so. Or, perhaps! I merely missed something. Let us continue looking."
Ritsuka Fujimaru	"Knives? Huh? I don't see anything like-" "Do you all? R-really? That's-" "Do you not? They're right over... There?" Ritsuka's curious tone turns concerned for a moment, and then she exchanges a brief look with Mash before turning to Rose. "Oh! Rose, can you show Meika one of those when you're done?" She half-calls out, half-whispers, like that might keep her from being too audible to anyone further out while still being audible at all to the agent. Mash, meanwhile, blinks slowly at Meika stepping behind her when the topic of Polly comes up. A bad falling out, perhaps? Or a rivalry? Maybe even a grudge? She can't quite get a lot out of Meika's tone, but she can at least stay right where she is, providing a convenient enough source of ablative face and clothes to keep Meika from being too seen! Or at least until Meika steps back again. With the power to read between the lines, Mash looks back over at Polly briefly, then at Meika, then feigns pacing around a bit before stopping again. She conveniently keeps herself close enough and in-between Meika and Polly enough that the former could step behind her again to stay out of eyesight, but not so close that it'd be easy to say she's deliberately doing anything except being a little restless.
Kayoko Kirenai	"Wouldn't that just mean a Temptation destroyed itself for no reason?"     "Temptations don't fight each other." Kayoko interjects to Tiphereth, not even saying 'I've never seen them,' or 'there's no precedent'. She sounds irritated at the suggestion at all. "They're just dumb monsters. Whenever there's two of them they basically ignore each other. And this one from last night melted things, it didn't do... blades."     That's an affirmation not only of her memory of last night-- at least, the parts unrelated to strange metal blooming-- but also of her ability to maintain a grasp on the topic of the conversation. Most of you have either seen or experienced, at some point before, the continual self-justification of Temptations' memory alterations; without the Cherubs' assistance, few of you would manage to get into the Holy Refulgence's hideout gym. Even trying to recall the memory of entering it with their help feels disjointed and irregular, like you're blindly filling in the transition between 'ruined exterior' and 'functional interior'.     "... And if it was a Temptation, I'd have no problem remembering...." ". . . I don't like it when you push away my help. It doesn't make me happy. It makes me worry about you, and wonder if I'm doing something wrong."     The shift in tone has Kayoko hesitating uncertainly, eyes seemingly attentively fixed on listening to Lilian, while in actuality scanning for microexpressions and tells. "S-sorry, Dame Commander, I don't mean to imply that your help isn't needed. You're not doing anything wrong. I appreciate it, a lot, I do." Her own voice subtly cracks and minutely picks up at the end.     "Isn't, um, the point that I have support just until I'm capable of doing it on my own? I'm supposed to be able to manage it myself, and it's... easier, to get to that point, with help." She follows up, a little bit quieter. "Vermillion managed it alone."     "What're you doing with the *government*, Kayoko? Is this what you've been doing all the time lately? Are you some kind of, like, anime protagonist and you haven't been *telling* me?" Polly's excited babbling slows to brow furrowed deeper confusion when she notices the *other* Kirenai's presence too. "... And Meika, too...?"     Kayoko's ability to say or do anything in response to Polly's questioning is stymied by the fact that she seems totally immobilized in fear. When Flamel gives her a wave she extremely awkwardly raises up a hand for a half-wave in what might supposedly be agreement, taking a partial step backwards until Satsuki pulls her aside properly and she just scurries away the moment she's given the justification, without actually explaining anything to Polly. "Don't look. Act naturally. There's magical equipment still in the area. You and Meika are the only ones who can't see it. Someone may be targeting you."     'Don't look' is a command so anathemic to Kayoko that she nods without even really hearing it. The rest, though, she takes incredibly seriously, now that *everyone* surrounding her, even *Polly* of all people, has confirmed the presence of metal shards. "... She's my dorm roommate. At school. K-kind of a friend? H-her name's Polly." That last part is actually known already.
Kayoko Kirenai	The frustration of not being able to see the blades gets to Kayoko badly enough that, when being pulled aside and whispered over and interrogated, she clenches a fist and hits it against her thigh. "This doesn't even make any *sense*! Temptations don't *do* that! As far as I know, I think! And how would that...?!"     She stalks her way over to the trashcan lying on the ground, closes her eyes and grits her teeth, and just kicks it. Her foot swings right through and she almost loses her balance. Making an uncomfortable noise, Kayoko kneels down and presses her hand to the blade itself, queasily uncertain about the conflicting sensory experiences she's receiving. "This isn't right. This is weird. It's...." It's at least possible for them to make progress in perceiving the true form of the objects? "We're not here to coverup, we're here to ... uncover up. Beggin' your pardon."     "Woah, the *American* government?!" Polly slips from accented Japanese into somewhat more natural English, eyes wide with shock. "Shit must be *real* serious!" She winks at Rose and adds smugly, "I'm allowed t' say it because the Sisters don't know English." "Captain Petunia, would you mind explaining what you mean by shrapnel?" "You...can see everything?"     "Well, I bet you'd all know, well they edited all the footage on TV, right? They showed off a bunch of garbage that got tossed everywhere, but that doesn't explain anything at all, does it? Didn't seem right to me." Was there edited news footage? Was it unedited, and simply misperceived? Polly seems to think it was edited, at least, but there's so little reliable narration to be found in this entire world, it's impossible to tell. "So I take my authority as captain and club leader of P-O-I-G-- that's the acronym, by the way-- and pack up my gear and head out to do some poking around myself! I wouldn't trust it without seeing it for my own eyes, and I was right! 'Stead of what they said there was, there was just all this metal junk! Why take all the time to edit a newscast if they've got nothing to hide?" "Is the rest of your club with you, or..."     "Yep! Got all the rest of them right here!" Polly whirls around and crouches, the momentum of her oversized backpack nearly sending her toppling over. She stands back up and turns around, revealing zero other club members. "Well, it's just me, for now. Can't be helped when the club kinda sorta breaks school rules."
Kayoko Kirenai	"We're not with the government, but we're investigating this, too." "W-we are not with your government!" "Yeah I guess we're uh, I mean I'm kind of with *a* government, right?"     Incredibly suspicious! Polly looks absolutely *thrilled* at the development, nodding furiously while swinging her backpack off her back to rummage through it. "'A' government, but not 'my' government, huh? You guys foreigners? Some worldwide initiative? An elite squad of secret agents traveling the globe to suppress information that'd disrupt the--" "I'm special agent Flamel Parsons, I'm with the Incident Information Consistency Bureau."     "-- Oh!" Even Polly herself seems shocked to be right about that. She stops pulling out gizmos (all of them effectively catalogue order garbage) to stare up at Flamel with her mouth agape. The badge comes across as *really* legitimate to her; so whatever her deal is, it's not some broad mental resistance. She seems completely lost on what to do next, even as Flamel requests her for assistance. "Uh... wow, really? Like, for real? I'm right?" "I don't suppose that'd be you?"     Polly is, perhaps, overly willing to spring to her feet and volunteer herself for working with a strange and menacing government agent. "Well, he-hey, Special Agent Mister Parsons! I picked up some of my own data when I swung around earlier, so--" "Go home before I call your parents."     That causes Captain Polly Petunia, club leader and sole member of the unofficiated Polly's Occult Investigation Gang, to freeze in her tracks. The spike of 'fear at being found out' at that alone is so tangible that it hardly takes a psychic probe to notice it. She takes a few steps back, hands up like she'd been threatened with a gun instead of a phone call.     "Woah, uh, s-sorry ma'am. I'm real sorry. I got a little ahead of myself, sure, but I'm not going to cause any problems, or anything. I can keep a secret, if your work's all secret." "How long have you been hanging out here? You know you're not allowed."     If there is a Catholic teenager somewhere on this Earth or any other that is free of guilt and the fear of being found out, then it certainly wouldn't be one so close to the Kirenais. Polly set up little tripod gadgets when she came by here earlier in the day, and was messing with them (they're nonfunctional in any real psychic usage, like the rest of her stuff) when the Elites came by.     "N-not allowed by the police, sure...." Implicitly, and echoing inside her head, is her total lack of expectation that anyone more intense would be here. "I haven't been here that long, I promise. Didn't touch anything, either. Not the weird metal."     The standoff, with Polly obviously cowed even if she's bargaining to maintain some presence in the most exciting thing she's seen this year, is interrupted by none other than Sarracenia. Picking up a blade intensifies the humming, and so does carrying it over to another. The vibrating in her hand is intense enough to feel almost numbing, like a tuning fork, and then when she touches the blades together there's a sudden echoing crack of sound, undeniably magical, sharply splitting the air with a high pitched noise and slicing surrounding grass to ribbons. As magic, as sound, it's instantly reminiscent of another magical girl present.
Sarracenia	'Shut it, contractor!'      Sarracenia huffs and crosses her arms. "...expect a large bill for my services." she says, looking off to one side in smoldering annoyance.      Sarra is so intrigued by what is going on with Polly and the others that she is only partially paying attention to what she is doing. But, the humming and numbing draws her attention back as she nears the other blade, and she is wincing a bit and clenching her teeth by the time the blades actually touch.      The crack of sound makes her yelp and drop her blade to cover her ears, then her eyes widen as the grass is sliced apart around her. The princess does not go entirely unscaythed, either. Her leggings, gloves, and sleeves gain several cuts, and a few mild cuts even appear on her fair skin with one just below her left eye. A small bit of red can be seen.      Rather than yelping in pain though, the princess laughs triumphantly. "Ha-hah! I thought something might happen! And that seems very much like..." She looks toward Meika and points. "Like you! Perhaps you are not quite as powerless as it seems!"      Sarracenia means it to sound positive, but it surely comes across more like an accusation of some kind.
Angela	Rose glances to Ritsuka. "Oh uh. I'm not sure ... that's a great idea considering she can't see them? She'd probably think I was showing her whatever it was recontextualized as?" Tiphereth is starting to piece a theory together that is pretty unpleasant. Rose winks back to Polly, "Well, that's already a positive quality of a detective, bein' multilingual and all. My old office investigated strange happenings like this too, but I got pulled into a-uh--bigger company like." She pulls up the scarf a bit more instinctively. "Pardon for keeping covered, got a real nasty scar." She adds. ''Temptations don't fight each other'' "That's why I'm figuring it's pretty unlikely." Tiphereth frowns. Rose starts moving closer to Polly as Sarracenia reaches for the blade as it hums. The source of that hum is frightfully familiar. "Wait, didn't she use..." The crack of sound erupts from those blades and Rose cringes as she covers her ears for a moment. The keychain emits a pleasant sensation towards Meika. But Tiphereth is distracted from the keychain in the moment, looking instead towards Meika's eyes for a long moment with her singular eye. "There seems to be no avoiding it. Dame Commander, I think these came from ... Vermilion. Or rather, her ''transformed'' state." Tiphereth says, taking care to avoid using the name Meika in this case. ''Like you! Perhaps you are not quite as powerless as you seem'' "Rose, shoot Sarracenia in the face please." Tiphereth says. (Rose's hand slides towards her side but she doesn't actually immediately shoot Sarracenia in the face, she looks towards Lilian as if to see if it's okay for her to shoot Sarracenia in the face). "...And I suspect the reason the memory alteration is getting weaker is because of the source of it." Tiphereth concludes.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Well, it's just me, for now. Can't be helped when the club kinda sorta breaks school rules."     A girl of Polly's age, running around chasing after ghosts and monsters with nothing but her intuition and a backpack full of useless junk? How intrepid! How exciting! How... shockingly dangerous, for an ordinary human child. Madeleine's enthusiasm is only visible for a moment before her expression falters and turns grim. She folds her arms and is just about to start a safety lecture when Flamel steps in to 'recruit' the girl. Seeing another Elite bringing Polly in on at least a *little* bit of the secret emboldens her, and she speaks up after the Psychonaut makes his offer.     "Miss, uh, Petunia," she says, "The truth *is* out there, and you've clearly got the head for finding it. But... you're a little young to be out here alone. And so... under-equipped." She nods at the pile of plastic and metal 'tools' Polly brought with her. "Agent Parsons and the rest of us have the experience, the training, and the tools to handle this sort of thing safely. But I think you *can* be helpful still, if you're willing to cooperate and keep quiet about this. Have there been other... strange happenings like this, recently? Or is this your first really big find?"
Hibiki Tachibana	I'm glad to hear it. "...Mmn." She doesn't make a fuss about Lilian's acceptance of that, even if it's nice to hear. This is the bare minimum she can do, after all. Even she's not happy with it. Until she stumbles on something that'll really help in the long run, it won't be enough. If, later down the line, she has to feel as helpless about Kayoko's coming of age as she does Meika's...     ...Well, coming to an actually smart(?) conclusion on something is a start. Keep it up, Tachibana Hibiki.     ...     Are you some kind of, like, anime protagonist and you haven't been *telling* me?     Hibiki lets out a somewhat exasperated groan for reasons unknown to most anyone here but herself and Rose.     Woah, the *American* government?!     She lets out another sound, much more like a whine.     Woah, uh, s-sorry ma'am. I'm real sorry. I got a little ahead of myself, sure, but I'm not going to cause any problems, or anything. I can keep a secret, if your work's all secret.     At that, though, Hibiki can't help but feel some sympathy for Polly - she doesn't need mind reading to tell that the recoil there is entirely genuine, and so was her excitement at coming across them. 'Should' be here or not doesn't really factor into it, especially not for Hibiki of all people, so it's just hard to watch. Taking in a breath, she starts forward a bit.     "...Hey, look. It's not just that. It's also that nobody wants you to get in trouble or end up in--"     She doesn't get to say 'danger', because the sudden crack of sound reverberating in the air would have drowned out her voice, even if she didn't snap-turn on her heels towards the source. It's only not defensive, more surprised than anything, as she's come to get sort of used to abrupt snaps like that to be from Meika in the middle of combat. But that's exactly why she's even more dumbfounded when she realizes what it actually was.     "From... Vermillion...?" In the tense moments that pass, she echoes Tiphereth's words as if she's trying to make them make sense in her head. She does not. The cat might be a little out of the bag with Sarracenia directly calling out Meika (even more than Polly stumbling onto Kayoko anyway), but even if that didn't happen, Hibiki probably wouldn't be able to quite stop herself from sounding utterly confused on... well, not even just the soon-to-not-be-Magical Girl's behalf, but her own.     "W-Wait, are you saying she did something she doesn't even remember herself? And hid the evidence like /that/?" 'That' being in reference to the same kind of alteration a Temptation would do. The attack as a whole being hidden as per usual is one thing, but Kayoko and Meika having it masked from specifically them, in the same way it normally would be for everyone else... "That-- I don't get how that'd have even happened...!"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons does approach. But then: That familiar sound. He jolts, pulling away from the blasting shock! That sonokinetic tone... First, assuage the civilian. "Woah! I think we might have found the source of some of that, so, you might want to get a little distance while I put some things together. Don't worry, it should be safe at a bit of a distance -- if you're up for it, I'm gonna give what you have a quick look in a minute!" He waves her back a bit, urgently, making sure she's okay after that shock. Then he turns to Meika.     A long, *long* pause, and then he removes his sunglasses, staring at her tilting his head. His look is absent any judgment, absent any assumptions. He saw, she didn't even seem to be able to see this. "Maybe I asked the wrong person about their prayers, huh?" He chuckles a bit. "You know, Meika, did *you* pray much...?" He shakes his head. "Haha. No, that's silly. If I'm investigating some kind of... miracle, I'm already in over my head." When in Rome, you know? Who knows how God moves.     "...I'll try whatever data I can get from Polly. Whatever information I can find from these scans. I guess, anything I can find from the metal. But..." He scratches his head, casting his eyes down a bit before he plants the sunglasses back on. "Summer will be starting soon. I'll save a spot for you at Whispering Rock if you're willing to take a shot at helping here."     He turns back, getting to work on the dangerous materials. More scans, and calling in some Psychonauts help to gather samples, contain materials, and improve the coverage on a cover-up that is demonstrably inverting its essential base functions. The magical girls and Immunes are experiencing warped memory, and not a civilian? That can't be right... He's going to push forward. Applying Clairvoyance and his own telepathy to all those points of interest try to find sympathetic links and significant factors. Approaching Polly soon, and giving her a thorough scan. If all this is sourced at Meika, or at whatever Meika drew power from, one that's warped the psychic angle badly. He has to find the source of it.
Lilian Rook	'She talks about us like that?'     Arina, not personally familiar with Meika, lets context slide by without noticing, and looks a little worried. "Ah . . . She didn't say that much about your sister, if that's what you're worried about? Just a few positive things. It didn't sound like she knew her that well. Um . . . sorry?" Her worried expression shifts from one variaton to another. "You don't have to apologize. Things will be okay now. It always turns out in the end, with her, so . . . good work, holding out until now."     The way Satsuki looks at her when she suddenly hears her whispered voice is different. She isn't here to aggressively pretend that nothing Meika does creeps her out. It's a little jarring, and invasive, but the dial cranks down only a very small amount from the sacred threshold of snack sharing. "Sorry. Commander didn't tell me you could . . . Yeah okay. Obviously it doesn't make sense, though, or there wouldn't be an investigation, right? It could be off-world. You've made enemies, haven't you? But it could just as easily be here. No one here knows much about what the situation is like even outside this city." 'Situation' comes with an implicit capital letter.     'S-sorry, Dame Commander, I don't mean to imply that your help isn't needed. You're not doing anything wrong. I appreciate it, a lot, I do.'     Looking for microexpressions is the worst thing Kayoko could do. From the moment she says the worst, she spots the little tells of prickly disappointment. Of effortfully reaching out, as mediated beforehand, and being pushed back. Lilian looks at her with some of the stymied worry she looks at Meika with these days. Her expectations are visibly lowered.     'Vermillion managed it alone.'     "She didn't." Lilian sighs, and elaborates no further. "And even if she had, it wasn't worth how things turned out now. Don't be in a hurry to go the same way."     '... She's my dorm roommate. At school. K-kind of a friend? H-her name's Polly.'     "Huh." Satsuki's verbal stance exudes the countless ghosts of future meanings, displaying that she has absolutely no openings. 'Huh'. Incredible. "I thought you stayed with your parents? I guess I didn't really ask. I just heard this and that about your family and nothing about a dorm, so I assumed." she says. The veracity of her distractedly lasered-in-on-something-else bearing starts to fall through when she sees Kayoko swing and miss and begin to freak out. It starts to look like a retreatful default. "I said act naturally, didn't I?"     'Woah, uh, s-sorry ma'am. I'm real sorry. I got a little ahead of myself, sure, but I'm not going to cause any problems, or anything.'     "Apologies, but I've been told that enough times to know not to believe it." says Lilian, needing no effort at all to act completely exhausted at hearing a third Catholic teenaged girl try to claim it. "I'm certain you believe it."     Lilian crosses her arms and makes an unpleasant noise at 'by the police'. "So what makes you think we won't mind?" She brings up her smart device, ostensibly ready to start checking a school registry for a home number; it both menaces and allows her to keep texting about the subject she's on. Her eyes darken at the message from Tiphereth.
Lilian Rook	The crack causes Satsuki to jump. She starts to move for Sarracenia, with a look of wanting to slap her hands away from the scene.     'Ha-hah! I thought something might happen! And that seems very much like...'     Arina worriedly shifts in front of Polly, and without saying anything, gently turns her away so that she can't look, and holds her hands over her ears.     'Like you! Perhaps you are not quite as powerless as it seems!'     The frightening part is how silent it is. How emotionlessly automatic. That a tangle of emotional conflicts all reaching their limit could look like unlocking a car door. Lilian drawing her sidearm from her thigh holster and turning to point it at Sarracenia feels so dangerously smooth and unremarkable that the idea that she is actually just about to shoot her only even registers at the very last second.
Meika Kirenai	'... And Meika, too...?'     "... Um. R-right. Hi." That's the most she gets out, too, before ducking off and away. At least there's plenty else for Polly to distract herself with. At least she's plenty used to avoidance. 'Commander didn't tell me you could . . . Yeah okay.'     Meika's wince is visible- but braced for, and expected. There's no surprise that Satsuki agrees at the invasiveness of Meika's tricks. {"I guess there's people that hate me, but enemies is... different?"} Watching Kayoko stumble with the trashcan is surprising enough to Meika to spark a slight worried idea. She may not be used to the disparity in level of perception going on, but she is used to working around objects that look one way and feel a different. She needs to step away from the crowd, no idea what even really to look for, to get a clear read on her surroundings shaped-out with echolocative subaudible ringing.     Some things are fuzzy, always. Not everything bounces sound back well. But some things here are clearer than they ought to be, enough for gut-worry to almost make her question. Pipes don't reflect that sharply, that directionally, they don't resonate. Fingers f-f-flicker and slip past the bounds of the shrouded object, and-     "Ow!" She recoils, finger nicked on the sharp edge of the blade jutting out from the ground. She shakes her hand out, and scrunches up her face. "... What the hell..?"     It still looks like something else, to her. It's still hard to think of, without the worry and guidance and pierced-through effort. It still feels like it shouldn't be focused on. Taking a steeling breath, she turns away. 'I thought you stayed with your parents?'     Attention back on Satsuki, half-overheard, and with her cut finger clamped between teeth, Meika mumbles out an answer for Kayoko: "... She- she doeshn't. I do, but she shtays at Our Lady. Mom and Dad trusht-" A wince, and she stops biting it. "... She's the better student." She's the better daughter.
Meika Kirenai	*CRACK*     Meika freezes. She, of all people, would recognize when magic sounds like hers. It isn't. I'm not that sloppy, I'd know if I was doing something like that, and I'm not even over there- It's not like her little unconscious implementations of her magic haven't cracked and shattered paving stones, wood beams, or masonry pieces she's carelessly touched, but this is a level beyond what she thinks could even be in that same vein. Deliberate, detached, caused by someone else interacting with something.     But why does it feel like that..? 'You know, Meika, did *you* pray much...?'     She's caught off-guard by the question. At first pass, it feels like a test of character, with a right or wrong answer. She should, right? It's the second pass that makes her breath hitch. "... Sure. More, years ago, when I was still- still starting out, I guess. Who wouldn't? But that's not... they don't get answered." She flinches, saying that. "Summer? I-" There seems to be no avoiding it. Dame Commander, I think these came from ... Vermilion. Or rather, her ''transformed'' state.'     "You'd- why? What's that supposed to mean? All your company's poking and proding and you think I could just... do something I can't even know or see?" Confusion and fear are close by one another, for Meika, and she's feeling both, strongly. 'Like you! Perhaps you are not quite as powerless as it seems!'     "I'm not *powerless*. I- I know that. I just can't transform, not the right-" A sharp cutoff in words, before saying the wrong thing. Not quite 'I can't transform, full stop'. She's silent for a second, before a slow inhale. "I- I can do plenty without transforming. I'm not powerless," She reiterates.     A second later, biting at where her thumb is bleeding from grabbing at the not-quite perceptible blade, she turns away from Sarracenia- and keeps addressing her.     "I- I can't do *that*, though." She's not quite sure what 'that' is in the first place, to her, the sound was felt more than heard, and though it all feels hauntingly close, the rest of it all doesn't add up, to Meika. "S-so I don't get it. I don't get why you'd say that. Blades? Shrapnel-? That's not... B-besides. You can see my magic. It's had color to it ever since Cobalt got her powers, and- and so you'd... There wasn't any there."     She trails off, quickly, when there's one hand resting on a holstered gun and another pointing one straight at the princess. For a split second, Meika worries if she should get her own out- and just stays frozen and silent, uncertain what's about to happen.
Angela	Rose startles in alarm as her Fixer instincts scream that a gun is active and, more to the point, someone like Lilian Rook is aiming it at someone. She hadn't taken Tiphereth's order seriously but when 'The Dame Commander' draws a weapon, there isn't a Lobotomy Corp Agent (not even Mikey) who isn't going to take that seriously. Crimson Scar (the pistol) pulls into Rose's hand and she points it towards Sarracenia too, uncertainty and fear etched on her face. Not at the idea of shooting Sarracenia, but at doing so here and now. At seeing the Dame Commander, specifically, take aim when she had been content to leave Sarracenia to others before.