Context (Takashi Agera)
| Context (Takashi Agera) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 28 August 2023 |
| Location: | Dark Laboratory |
| Synopsis: | Takashi tries to prioritize all of the projects he has in front of him. Axion helps. Kind of. |
| Cast of Characters: | Takashi Agera |
| Tinyplot: | Midnight Tokyo |
Takashi sat at his desk. In his small lab. Looking down at the metallic surface that it seemed was somehow expected to contain pretty much everything he was actively working on. But he was doing so much right now. Even though there were only three objects on the desk, each object represented a massive investment of effort.
So of course, like the mature super genius he is, Takashi reaches out and grabs each in his hand, one at a time, and rotates his hand while releasing them, watching them spin in place on the smooth surface of the desk, each in its own location. The three objects, for the moment, reduced to fidget spinners.
The first object, a crystal, purple in color but beating with jet-black Dark Energy within. Darien's energy. Really, Mamoru's energy. Takashi didn't need to play along with that charade in his own mind. And was it even Mamoru's energy? Only hardly. Mostly it was Dark Energy, and not in the way he was used to seeing it. It wasn't Mamoru's dark energy. It was just Dark Energy there, surrounding Mamoru's actual energy like an evil candy shell. Not at all like Takashi's own Dark Energy, where he could clearly tell it was his energy, where it was a part of the process.
The crystal represented the whole project with his adopted brother - and the interactions between Dark Energy and Linker Cores in general, with all of the examples he had ready. The project had a high priority, in his mind, because it would enable him to maybe help his conflicted brother and also help himself - the more he understood, the more he could control, after all. Dark Energy was his birthright, and based on his recent information gleaned from so many different styles, the way he controlled and connected to it may have been a more unique birthright than he previously thought.
The next object, which Takashi knew on some level he absolutely shouldn't be spinning like a child's top but still was, was a black sphere with a long needle that protruded out of the bottom of it. LaCrima had brought it to him - already paying off his investment of time and energy in Norie Okana in full, much to his satisfaction. He could tell she was special when he ran into her. As was this... thing, so very special. He knew only a little bit about it - this Grief Seed - but it beat with a strange, dissonant sort of magic he positively ached to understand. The little orbs' spinning came to a stop as Takashi regarded it. What are you, little seed? What secrets do you hold? What is the danger he had been warned about? Warning Takashi about Danger was something like sitting a cat in front of a glass of water. Experiments were going to follow.
But as much as he wanted to understand the thing, he didn't know where to start, and thanks to the two other things on the table, he didn't have the time. Terrible fact, because out of the three things, it's what intrigued him the most. Dissonant, strange magic was, for the moment, even more interesting than learning more about Dark Energy. But he'd have to either put it aside or shortcut it. Perhaps... the Dusk-connected vendor he'd heard about could give him some information? He had heard she dealt with things like this. But she'd likely want something in return for information, if she did. He'd make time to visit her, though.
The last item on the table was a USB stick. The most mundane, the most uninteresting, but of course it wasn't about the stick itself but about the data on it. He had the least to gain from what it represented, but also the most to lose. Fucking. Midnight. Tokyo. It had rustled feathers outside of Obsidian, it had caused people to come sniffing around, it was such a bad idea on so many levels that it had become known by the sparkleskirts. And it was a bad idea. The Dusk Zone was a wonderful place, but it needed to stay there. And worse, he wouldn't get a combat advantage from the project that wouldn't be matched by other Obsidian/Dark Energy people, which didn't really help him at all. It'd make the threats larger and prevent him from ascending in power to oppose them. It was problematic for him on every level, but it was being spearheaded by Mamoru's little entourage and he'd have to be careful about how he responded to it, and where.
He needed to deliver that stupid project a blow to slow it down so he could focus on the other things. And he'd have to handle that himself. Norie was too new, even if extremely competent. Fate was a good girl, but would never hide anything from her Mother on questioning. Hotaru... based on how she'd handled Kyouka's questioning, he decided to not involve her either. This was going to be a one-man-band.
<Meister.> His device intoned, breaking the silence. "Right, you'll be coming too. So one-man and one-machine band." he said, presuming the device was noting it would be present.
<Meister, I have detected a dimensional disturbance.> Axion added after a moment. <The object you are tracking will arrive soon.>
Great, four things. "Fan-tas-tic." Takashi sighed. But maybe if he could secure more of the offworld technology, he could put it to use assisting him in one or more of these. "Alright, make sure you know the when and the where, Axion. When you do, contact Bardiche and Luminous Titan and make sure they and their wielders are ready. The more tech bits I can get my hands on, the less chance I get overwhelmed and drop one of these damned balls I'm juggling." He was a genius, but he wasn't a computer. He needed something able to pursue threads of thought at a faster rate than he was, and with more computing power than he had crammed into his device.
<Jawohl, Meister.> the device responds. Good. Another thing to put on his ever growing list.
Takashi slumped back in his chair and sighed. "If ignorance is bliss, supreme genius might well be full of its own moments of special misery." Takashi complains, to nobody in particular.
<Deine Schicksale öffnen ihre Hände. Lass dein Blut und deinen Geist es umarmen.> (Thy Fates open their hands. Let thy blood and spirit embrace them.) Axion replies, quoting Shakespeare.
"Twelfth night. I'd feel better about that if you weren't quoting from a letter that's a joke played on the recipient, Axion." he says with a sigh. "Context is important." he adds, before leaning forward and looking at the three objects again. "Nothing for it, though. Only one person can play this role, and it's me."
<Ich glaube, Meister.> (I believe, Meister) Axion replies.
"Hmm. On a related note... do I fall under 'born great', 'achieve greatness', or 'greatness thrust upon me'? No need to answer. It's all three, I know." Takashi says, quite seriously, as he leans forward and picks up the objects off the table, stuffing them into his cavernous labcoat pockets. Axion does not respond to that. Either agreeing, or merely choosing to not argue with its creator.
