105/A Shoulder To Lean On

A Shoulder To Lean On
Date of Scene:	17 July 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Board Room
Synopsis:	Takashi calls Darien to come peel him off the table after Precia makes her displeasure known.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Mamoru Chiba

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    After being NOT driven through the table by Precia Testarossa (which hurt more than it would if he'd gone through the thing) and, he's reasonably sure, dealing with breaks or fractures. And absolutely pain. No question about the pain. Breathing hurts, trying to use his left arm hurts, and trying to walk is a no-go. But, hey, all of the bones are inside the skin, so little victories, right?

    Takashi really, really regrets the fact that his phone is in his left coat pocket though. It takes a lot of effort to pull it out with his right hand. Eventually, he gets it in his hand and starts texting with one hand, Hematite/Darien(/Mamoru).

    > Hey, could you maybe come get me? I had a meeting with Director Testarossa. It went well, I think. Except for the part where I think the only way I'm getting down to the infirmary under my own power is by scooting in a rather undignified way. I could use a shoulder or two. <

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
    > shit yeah brt. hope you can cope with just one
    > shoulder

And after the location's given, there's just waiting.

Apparently Hematite took the stairs, because he's there a lot faster flying than he would be in an elevator, and he's wearing a cape when he comes in through the door-- a cape and a look of shock, and then a set jaw. "Okay," he starts, then stalls as he comes over and sees the way Takashi's holding his phone, sees the way he's moving (or not moving).

Quieter, and with restraint, he says, "Okay. So. How do you want to do this? If I hear bone grating I'm getting a stretcher. I'm not even sure how you can be moved."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi groans. "Don't start in with that. The real trouble is it's my left arm and my right leg, that's all. Makes it super awkward for me to sort it out myself. Honestly, I'm starting to lean towards fractures or maybe just bruises, not breaks. All of my me is still mostly where it's supposed to be." he adds. "You know what, I think she likes me." he says with a very traditionally Takashi grin. Trying to put through to Mamoru that he's okay. Even if he isn't.

    "Anyways, I'm thinking if you can help me to my feet and I can get an arm around your shoulders, I can keep off the right leg and kinda hop with you? Still less undignified than one-legged scooting across the floor on my butt.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"If you can fuss over me getting a little singed, I can fuss over you getting 'maybe it's just a fracture or a bad bruise,'" Hematite almost snaps-- almost. It's certainly angry, though it's almost certainly not angry at Takashi. He just gives Taka a look at the comment about Precia. "Be nice if we had an actual HR that didn't mean..." he trails off, squinting at the aforementioned right leg.

"Yeah sure, we can try that," he says, and disbelief is all throughout his voice. "Hopping's going to make you wish you were dead, but we can sure try it. If it's too much, then just... let me carry you to the elevator. Nobody else is on this floor."

He's good for it, though, really carefully helping Takashi upright-- stopping every time there's a flinch or a sound.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Oh come on, I would never want to deprive the world of me, just to reduce my own pain. I'm not that selfish." he says, though there's a little bit of wincing and some actually kind of soft severe pain sounds that escape his lips even though he's trying not to. Wetness in his eyes not from sadness, but from the raw effects of the pain. And yet, he does get to his feet. Well, foot.

"I can't let you carry me - then you'll have something to threaten me with if I ever mention you being tutored by me, and I simply cannot lose that." He adds with another smile. "Anyways, shouldn't need to hop, I'll just lean on you like you're the crutch."

"You seem mad. But really the whole thing is my fault, if I had gotten the whole floating thing down outside of henshin I'd already be getting x-ray'd or whatever. Or if I'd henshined first."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'm mad at Testarossa, not you," Hematite says under his breath, and it's under his breath, because he wouldn't want Beryl mad at him either so he gets it. Then there are pain sounds, and Mamoru closes his eyes as he keeps helping Takashi move.

Finally, Darien's voice gets a little closer to normal, just a little bit annoyed, with some exasperated fondness beneath it. "You know I don't hold petty shit like that up as ammunition. If you want to tell people you tutored me, they can laugh at you all on their own. My grades stand as they are."

Upright. The next step is... a step. "Okay, going forward. Just hang on and drag your foot like you've got a flat tire."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Yeah, I know who you're mad at. My point is don't be. I knew I was going to get into trouble. You can't make progress if you're not willing to pay the occasional price." Takashi says. And this time, he's not smiling or joking. This time he's very serious. "Not really going to get a chance to go anywhere else if I stay where I am all content to be a drone."

    "Now, I am sorry I had to call you for help. I just didn't figure Tomoe-chan was really posessed of the upper body strength to help out here. I should have gone for breaking the fall with my arms only, then I could walk on my own power." He's also, still being serious. "This won't be the last time something like this happens to me, either. The only thing I can really do is make sure I don't inconvinence you as much going forward. But you know I can't stop taking every chance I can to move forward. If I'm not moving forward, I'm falling behind."

    Takashi, despite being clearly in pain, does keep going forward, in more ways than one.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Never think you're inconveniencing me!" Darien says, truly dismayed. "I mean don't get hurt so much, but if you do--" His voice goes to practically a whisper. They're not in Takashi's lab yet. "--if you do, please keep calling me, please." All the things he can't say are in that. You're the last connection to the things I can't touch. You were there when no one else was. You matter so much to me. You're family in all the ways that matter.

"Maybe I'm just mad at the system. Maybe we just need a better one. And if I can keep believing that that's what we're moving towards, I guess I can keep believing you throwing yourself in front of cannonades is worth it," he says instead, aggrieved. One step at a time. Out the door, toward the elevator. "I wish you could just join my division, honestly. It would make things so much easier."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Yeah, I mean I did ring you." Takashi points out, defeated instantly by the emotion in 'Darien's' voice. In Mamoru's voice. In the voice of the kid he grew up with, even if he doesn't remember that. He knows it, somewhere, even if he doesn't remember it. Otherwise, he'd have stopped putting up with him a while ago, Takashi reasons. "Doesn't mean I shouldn't try to avoid abusing the privledge."

    "Come on, it's never NOT been worth it in the end, sometimes the road is just a lot longer than we'd like. All of the crap we've both gone through - and yes I know you don't remember all of it - but now we do both have better situations than the ones we grew up in. The dorms, the work - even when it's difficult - beats where we started." Out the door, down the elevator.

    "Unfortunantly, I can't join your divison. For one thing, there's not enough research emphasis, my brain would melt if I had to stand around and be the customer service rep for Jadeite's business scheme of the weekend or Nephrite's chauffer or something. Secondly, as you can clearly see from Director Testarossa's... performance review, I do not have the way with older women you seem to."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Perfectly reasonable. And Mamoru was always empathetic, wasn't he? This is just him. He's still him. They still work.

"You have too much pride to abuse it," snorts Darien. He does listen, though, and then he grins, sidelong, at Takashi. "Honestly the dorms aren't that bad. I've had the same roommate for like a year now, and he's been broken in pretty adequately. He covers for me if I'm late or don't show, and he doesn't ask questions. I only got caught coming in late once, and it was when he was visiting home--"

Talking about school is something Darien's increasingly comfortable doing, and maybe he can do it right now because they're not moving, and he doesn't have to hear the strain in Takashi's voice so much. The elevator slows. "It's okay I don't remember it. I have the idea that there's stuff I'd miss if I did, so."

The elevator stops, ding! Just the infirmary to get to now. And Takashi's comments about Beryl. "I could drop you," Hematite says conversationally.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    When Mamoru talks about his roomate, Takashi also adds "...develops complicated plans to leave you in restaurants with blonde girls..." in the same tone Mamoru is using listing off Koji's good points.

    "No, the dorms are great. They're a damn high amount better than the place we used to live." Takashi pauses and sighs. "Honestly, a lot of the history you forgot... you might be better off forgetting." Takashi admits. Though even he doesn't know the quantity of history Mamoru is truly missing. "We didn't have the happiest time growing up, you and I. Growing up in an orphanage wasn't... super great a lot of the time."

    "You? Drop me? You could but you wouldn't. Or at least, not hard, anyways." He says with a smug smile. Ah, back to being him. "And really, I'll be fine, but I wanted to get brought here because I just want them to confirm it's going to heal up OK so I don't end up with like, one finger growing in the wrong angle or something... I'd do it myself but I suspect it's really hard to x-ray your own hand, one handed."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Blah blah blah, blonde girl," grumbles Darien. He's quiet about the things he's missing, though, that Takashi touches on briefly-- just filing them under 'forget' or 'save for later', as needed. Maybe if he remembered the bad parts he'd feel better about what he thinks he'd miss, as long as he didn't remember that too.

It's a careful tightrope balance way to exist. It lets him exist as something happier than he was in the orphanage, anyway. He's certainly more outgoing than he used to be, certainly more open, definitely friendlier. And maybe that's not the best way to be at Obsidian, but it hasn't hurt him so far. "So yeah, the dorms are great, the work is usually great, the food is pretty great, and at least my coworkers are awesome," he finally agrees. "And you're right, I won't drop you. Ass."

And there's the infirmary door. "And you think the infirmary's not gonna help you get a finger growing out of your forehead or something? You know it's always a crapshoot depending on who's on duty," Mamoru says dubiously, doors sliding open in front of them. "I can't believe you pulled this right after being some magical girl's pincushion though. Like, time it better."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Oh come on." Takashi begins. "I've mostly avoided giving you hell about that. I just assume she's got some qualities I didn't see in our brief time together." he points out. And is pretty fair about it, all things considered.

    "I mean, I'm pretty sure I'll be okay. I just need diagnosis, I'll save the treatment for like... a mundane doctor. Or Tomoe-chan, actually... she might be a better go of at least speeding it up with her powers."

    "And look, opprotunity knocked and I opened the door and it had a sledgehammer but it was still opprotunity. Injured now, injured later, better now so I have more time to look at the data..." he said with a smile. "Besides, ever since that fight with the spear girl... I haven't been able to track passive magical artifacts anymore. I can't really choose my fight timings, I have to go when the going is good. Something about all of the magic cropping up has totally busted my previous ways of triangulation. So look, I see magic, if I'm not already hurt, I have to go after it. I'm not going to have enough data to work on understanding if I don't go out there and get the data. People aren't exactly being forthcoming to a low-level guy like me when they find it."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Fair," says Hematite grudgingly, and leaves it be. He does not go into Usagi's good qualities. That's a conversation he had with Koji and a little bit with Inai and that's where that's going to stay; he doesn't need anyone else at Obsidian taking an interest in her.

"Okay, fine," he agrees, regarding Takashi's terrible cold correct logic about risk and reward, "but take me with you when you can? If you shield up I can draw fire and dodge thank you."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "I mean, I'll send you a message or something but I can't exactly wait around for you." Takashi says, and then pauses. "Plus, you've always been the one of us who..." he paused. Thought. He actually didn't want to offend Darien or make himself feel bad. "... You're not as comfortable looking for trouble as I am?" he offers. "I think it always seems like there's some part of you that isn't fully comfortable with the things I do. The things you do, here in Obsidian, too. Like you're resigned to them but some part of you wants to rebel against doing it." he says, softly.

    "So you know, part of me always wants to avoid dragging you into it. Yeah, sometimes I need your help. More than I ask for it. But we're different as much as we are the same. You're not the one who made your own spooky shadow friends dance in your palm before Obsidian." Takashi pointed out. "And... they always made you a little bit uncomfortable. You pretended they didn't, and I pretended not to notice. But I always noticed. And I don't think that part of you has changed.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"If you send me a message and I can't get there in time, I can at least figure out where to look if I gotta clean you off the pavement," Hematite tells Takashi. And then look, there's the place Hema was at last time he had to come to the infirmary! He is not immune to the joy of irony, as he leads Takashi to exactly that spot and offloads him.

And he listens. And he dehenshins so he has pockets to shove his hands in, and his glasses are a shield of glass and reflections, obscuring that Earth-blue that always saw more than, maybe, it was supposed to. He chews on his lower lip a little while Takashi's talking, and then a little while afterwards, his stance changing as he shifts his weight.

Finally, "I remember them. I don't remember being uncomfortable, but-- I remember I used to feed them with light. And I think that's what I need to forget." A beat. Then, softly, "I might correct you, but I like it when you don't call me Darien."

A brief silence as the black-haired boy looks away, and then he turns back to give Takashi a crooked smirk. "Lemme know if you pick any more fights with tables, hotshot. I'm out."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Thanks for the shoulder to lean on, Darien." Takashi said as he started to turn away. And the way he said Darien, it was like they both knew that wasn't always his name, wouldn't always be his name. Takashi didn't know how to feel about that. In some ways the way he acted as Darien was better aligned with Takashi's own energy and goals... but, in some ways, calling him Mamoru still felt more right.

    But that was Future Takashi's problem. Present Takashi, on the other hand, had other problems. Mostly pain. One step at a time, though.