1413/Romantic Ambitions

Romantic Ambitions
Date of Scene:	21 April 2024
Location:	Outside Tokyo
Synopsis:	Takashi takes Mami out of town to a secluded forest for a picnic as an elaborate ruse to get to know his girlfriend better. He's delighted to discover she has ambitions as big as his own, even if she didn't even share them all yet.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Mami Tomoe

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Takashi Agera has posed:
There were a lot of good reasons for Takashi Agera to go out of the hustle and bustle of Tokyo on a Saturday with Mami Tomoe.

    They both were always so busy. He'd recently seen Sunbreaker temporarily turned into a human ice cube. He'd thrown a monster-jacket at his former brother. His girlfriend was hot and he should spend more time with her.

    The true reason was probably some combination of them all. He also didn't want Mami to feel like he was prioritizing work over her - even if sometimes he might have been guilty of exactly that.

    While neither of them could drive (or had a car and drove anyways despite this) this problem really wasn't much of a problem for two powered mahou - Takashi could teleport them there and a mixture of flying and ribbon-swinging would get the two of them anywhere. So he'd asked Mami to pack a picnic and meet him at his office, but to dress warm since they were going 'out of town' for the afternoon. A swirling Midchildan portal jump later and they were quite well out of town, in a forested area far away from people. And probably witches.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    Mami didn't even question Takashi's motives. It didn't matter why he was taking her on a picnic to a distant forest, it just mattered that he was. It was so romantic. Of course, she was providing the picnic: delicious onigiri and a fancy fruit tart with berries and kiwi along with iced rooibos tea. It was all in a cute little picnic basket. She always had a cute little picnic basket.
    She confidently stepped through the portal and took several more steps into the forest on the other side before spinning around in place looking at everything and smiling. "Oh, Takashi-kun! This is perfect!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    One of them could cook, and that person was not the guy who spent all day (and some nights) sleeping in a lab or his office. Well, now his office was basically someone else's home so less time there lately...

    "Well, we couldn't have anything less than perfect for the two of us, right?" He asked with a smile. "But I wanted to get out of the office, away from the witches and the sparklesquad and the youma and all of that." Not that the things he intends to talk about aren't related to that in some way, but that's for later.

    "And I can always stand to spend more time alone with the prettiest girl in Tokyo. Or, out of Tokyo right now I suppose?" he says, rubbing his neck. "Whatever, you get my point though."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    "You absolutely could stand to spend more time with me," Mami agrees with an emphatic nod of her head that sent her hair drills bouncing. She marched the few steps back to where he was standing and then grabbed ahold of his hand before dragging him off a little farther into the trees. "Now, let's find the best spot to throw down our blanket."
    She was excited. This was a date almost like they were normal teenagers. Forgetting, for a moment, how they got here at least. Whenever they tried to do anything in Tokyo, their work lives always seemed to get in the way. So this picnic in the woods? Just absolutely perfect like she'd said.
    As she surveys the forest floor, she looks aside to Takashi and says, with a knowing look in her eye. "So, what is it you want to talk about so far away from prying eyes and ears?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi smiles. "Well, you and me stuff." He says. "I... want to know more about you. I know a lot about Puella Magi Mami Tomoe. I know you're pretty, and dangerous, and deceptively smart. I know you're a tactical savant and I know you make absolutely amazing food - which you're probably about to remind me of." He says, as they walk. "I know you like being treated like the treasure you are, and I know I enjoy doing it. But..." he continues. "I want to know more about you.

    All that stuff regular non-shoot-lasers-for-a-day-job couples talk about, I guess, instead of the best way to combine powers to kill a witch or drop a sparklesquaddie. Like... Do you listen to music? What kind of music? What did you want to be when you grew up, when you were a little girl, before magic." he says. "That sort of stuff."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    The basket swings from Mami's arms as she almost skips beside Takashi. She's in a good mood. "Of course I listen to music. Who doesn't listen to music? I'll put it on when I'm baking," she says, sounding a lot like someone who maybe does not listen to music, but thinks she's supposed to.
    She goes silent for a moment, slowing down to more of a walk as she thinks about other things. Only a fifth of her life has been as a Puella, but the rest of it feels so distant now. Like she's a whole different girl. "I wanted to be a dancer. I wanted to go to Paris and be a ballerina."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Well yes, but what kind of music do you listen to?" He asks, smirking and raising an eyebrow. "It's fine to say you don't care, Mami-san, if you don't care. There's not a wrong answer here. I just want to know."

    "I can see it. The fancy dresses, the smooth movements - you ended sort of a battlefield ballerina instead, but the stage is far different there." he says. He moves closer to her and grabs her other hand with his. Squeezing it.

    "I'm sure it'll come as a shock to you that I thought I was going to be a scientist. So much stuff in life didn't make sense and I wanted to understand it all. That has... become less likely as time has gone on, haha. I think I'm more confused about how the world works, now." He admits.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    Mami looks up at Takashi for a moment, a deep uncertainty in her eyes, and then she sighs and looks down her shoulders slumping just a little. "I don't. I don't listen to music. Not really, no. There's always the weirdest music inside Labyrinths and I just. I like it silent when I'm at home."
    She's silent, listening to what else he has to say. About him. She smiles. "You can certainly try, but I think you're gonna have to join the immortality club if you really want to give it a good go." She steps in closer and pushes up on her toes to kiss his jaw. "That's the problem with meat. It's got a limited lifespan all on its own."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi squeezes Mami's hand again. "It's cool. I listen to music sometimes 'cause the lab gets loud, but less so now that I work in that office. Though now I hear Glimmer playing Pokemon all the time instead. Kind of white noise though, I tune it out." He says.

    Then he turns to her, absolutely seriously, and asks "Well, what's wrong with joining the immortality club?" he asks. Then he pauses. "I mean, it sounds crazy sure, but look at all the crazy stuff that we really interact with. I mean... do we even 'know' that you're 'not' immortal, given the whole like. Soul Gem thing?" he asks.

    Then he pauses again. "...you wanted to be a ballerina, right? So did you ever want to be like, a Princess, or a Queen?" he asks her.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    "What girl doesn't?" Mami says with a laugh. "But then I learned about social strata and how royalty actually works and set my sights a little lower. Something more attainable for a working-class girl like me." As if she's anything like a working class girl, now. She's a Puella Magi.
    Her soul gem materializes in her hand and she looks a it. "Okay, so I'm not completely safe from harm, but I'm undying so long as I keep the darkness out of my soul gem." There's a bit of inky blackness swirling around the yellow gem.
    Then the gem is back to a ring on her finger and she smiles. "But I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying you're gonna need all the time you can get."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi nods. "Yeah, the regular human part of me is probably on some sort of teleomere clock. But who knows, with magic. And the rest of me might not be." he notes, flexing his hand as it turns into a shadowy claw for a moment and then the shadows dissapate.

    "But like, royalty, social strata, all of that stuff - the only reason royalty exists is somebody - who wasn't royalty at the time, kicked everybody's butt so bad everyone after them agreed their kids were still badasses. Or they had the loot from doing it." Takashi notes. "Like on the one hand that time is passed but on the other hand there is a literal queen of an entire planet who is probably currently playing Pokemon and moving things she doesn't understand around in my office." he continues.

    "So maybe, I'm thinking there's no reason we should set our sights particularly 'low'. You know?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    Finally they arrive at what Mami declares is the perfect spot. It is a spot that looks like every other spot they've passed thru. But something about it is just right. She pulls a blanket out of the picnic basket and throws it down, then she sets the basket down in the middle before stepping around it to tiptoe up and put a kiss on Takashi's lips.
    "Silly boy. You asked me what I wanted to be when I was a little girl. My ambition has grown significantly since then."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi snickers. "Well, I figured I'd start with the past to get you used to talking to me about you. I didn't want it to be another one of those things where I talk and you listen. You know?" he begins. "Sometimes it feels like you're a little guarded about yourself. I... was kinda hoping the change of scenery would get you to open up." He says.

    "'Cause I like you a lot - I mean, look at you. I have functioning eyes." he points out. Or at least, with the glasses. "But you brought that girl, Melona, to us... and you've been training with me... and I want to know... what is your ambition now. I'm gonna assume you haven't decided the world is worthy of being destroyed or something, just cause Kyubey moved your soul a little bit out of place, or something crazy like some of the Obsidian groups outside of ours have. But I also hope you're not just... Surviving each day."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    As a Puella, being vulnerable gets you killed. Like it or not Puella are all competing with one another for a finite resource. When push comes to shove, even close friends could very easily end up at each other's throats. Something even more true when she considers the truth of a Puella's ultimate fate. Mami doesn't like to be vulnerable.
    But if she couldn't trust Takashi, who could she trust? He was her boyfriend. She looked up into his eyes and let out a long exhale. "Sayaka's other half never came back from being a witch but that scroll merged them back together and now Sayaka's got powers she can use to keep witches from hatching, among other things. What that tells me is that becoming a witch is not the death sentence Kyubey would have us all believe. It's just another transition that magic can mess with."
    Oh no (oh yes?), he got her monologuing.
    "I want to figure out how to harness that power, Takashi-kun. And then maybe this planet could have a Queen just like Glimmer's did."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    And Takashi let out an exhale of his own. "Oh that's so good to hear." he says. "I have been worried, Mami-san, that you wouldn't understand. Understand me, understand this, understand the potential of what we have and the powers we can harness - separately, together." he says. After a moment he stops and just reaches out and HUGS her tightly. There's a grin on his face when he lets go and looks at her.

    "I was starting to be worried you didn't have any ambition - that you were just floating through life, happy with what you have. When you could be so much more. We could be so much more. We can do more than 'survive'. And more than that..."

    "The world needs us to. It's going to need people who aren't afraid to use the tools at their disposal, if it's going to survive. There are so many threats - ones I've seen, ones I've heard about from others. People in Obsidian. Monsters from the Dusk Zone. People who don't have ambition can't lead, and without leadership, countries wither. I'm sure it's the same with worlds."

    "Glimmer told me about an entire fleet that her world had to defend from. Real sci-fi stuff. Galactic empires and nonsense like that. Maybe that's just in her dimension, but she made it here so even that's not really helpful."

    "Do you see Sayaka or the others handling that, is Yellow Pearl Voice going to sing a ship out of orbit? It's nonsense to think they could. It's gotta be people with real power. Which means Dark Energy, and ambition, and the ability to make things happen..." and the boy hugs Mami again. "And to say you can see yourself as a Queen is so good to hear. I thought I might have to talk you into it or worse. Because a King needs his Queen."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    She tried her hand at monologuing and so Takashi had to show her how it was done. She listened, and this time it was with rapt attention because he was talking about one of her favorite topics: her and how amazing she is. It helps that the talking is accompanied with hugs.
    She wrapped her arms around him, returning the hug, and pressing her face into his chest, squeezing tightly. It was a relief getting that kind of response. It made her think he might even be receptive to hearing what she had in mind for Melona. But why get hasty in that reveal? He seemed mollified.
    She laughed as she leaned back and looked up. "No, no I cannot. No spaceship is going to be brought down by the power of love and friendship." She really liked the sound of being his Queen. That sounded like a relationship with longevity. Committment. She hugged him tightly again. "I like the sound of that," she murmurs, and then there's a pause, before she adds with a slightly giggly voice.
    "My King."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi snickered in that self-assured haughty way. "I'll worry about titles at some point. Though it does sound damn better hearing it out of your mouth than it does calling myself that." He adds. "But for now I won't go around calling either of us that. We already have someone who calls themself Queen working for us, and my boss calls herself Queen. Takes all the meaning out of it if we just throw it around. And... we have to be smart about this..." he says, tapping the side of his head "...and tactical." he adds, tapping Mami's forehead when he says tactical.

    He reaches out and takes Mami's hand in his, interlacing his fingers with hers. "When three Warlords rose to attempt to unite China, Liu Bei was the most virtuous and Sun Quan had the most territory. But Cao Cao ended up uniting China, by being the smartest and most ambitious of the Three Kingdoms. By letting other people throw their weight around and only moving at the right times. The sparklesquad - they're Liu Bei. The other powers of Obsidian - they're like Sun Quan. And us - the smartest and most talented and most worthy to rule - we're Cao Cao. And the immortality bit will take care of the worry about having children that can't carry the legacy..." he adds. Then shakes his head. "Sorry - this isn't a history lesson. The point is, it's not how powerful you begin that matters. It's just how powerful you become - and how wily and ambitious you can be. And I think you and I... we have that over everyone else. Over the friendship-and-love crowd and the power-without-brains crowd."

    "And yeah it sounds a little bit... crazy to say. But look at the world we live in now. Our coworkers are oni and wolfmen and demon clowns." he shrugs. "We go into completely crazy labrynths multiple times a week. The world stopped making sense to conventional thought a while ago."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
    Listens to every word, her eyes fixed on Takashi's mouth as he goes on about warlords and china and the sparklesquad. She definitely got all that. She definitely wasn't just thinking about kissing him. Except that's exactly what she was doing. So when he finishes talking she leans forward and does exactly that. "It stopped making sense, so we need to fix it."
    She then settled back and flipped open the picnic basket, pulling out the tart and the onigiri and the iced rooibos tea. They came here for a picnic, and then they got all romantical. It's like they're teenagers or something. But Mami did not go to all the trouble of making the food just to forget about it in their pursuit of power. They were going to eat.