1432/Of Stories And Sparkles

Of Stories And Sparkles
Date of Scene:	20 April 2024
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Glimmer and Takashi bond over some shared difficulties, and the truth about the 'fanfic'.
Cast of Characters:	Glimmer Brightmoon, Takashi Agera

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Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was lounging on the hammock, her gameboy held in her lap as she tried undergoing her hardest challenge yet.

Victory road. Or, more importantly, the maze of victory road. Yes, that was right. As powerful as her charizard, dewgong and vileplume core were... they could only do so much when the hardest part of the game, so far... was that she was lost as *shit*.

This had been occupying her for a while now. Admittedly, she'd be done by now... except she kept getting distracted. But for now? She was just playing...

And waiting for a certain somebody to return to his office. Because she needed to have a little talk with Obsidian Hordak/Entrapta.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi was coming back to his office - slash Glimmer's room now, since it's not like the girl particularly wants to leave the crystal - hoping she hadn't found something else to break or otherwise just move out of position he hadn't already moved. As much trouble as having his experiments in Obsidian might have been if the wrong person asked the wrong questions - it was Glimmer's arrival that made him realize he really needed his own place - not a dorm and not an office.

    Under his arm was a manilla folder stuffed with papers, and Takashi was acting like they were just normal papers, though they were not. He didn't knock - it was still his damn office - and entered slowly, a glance over to the girl in the hammock. He didn't need to ask if she'd been touching stuff - the trail of temporary magical glitter pretty much told him everything he needed to know. He just sighed and went behind his desk, getting out a suitcase. "Having fun?" he asks, finally, before setting the suitcase on the desk.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon glanced over when he entered and... then saved and turned the game off. A moment later she teleported over to him, leaning in towards the folder. "Ohhhh, what's that?" she asked. Ahhhh, of course. Already bored, it seemed. The small cat-thing she had glanced up from its perch on the rock, only to close its eyes and relax again.

"And yeah, victory road is evil, the place needs a map. Kicked Bow's butt, though." Yes, she called the rival 'Bow'. Because he'd been her 'friend' from childhood. How could she know he'd be a jerk?!

"Oh, I need to talk with you about some things, though. But it can wait until you're done with whatever... that is," she said, before poking the folder.

Could it, though? Could it? *COULD IT?*

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi raised an eyebrow. "It's just some finance stuff I have to work on for the department this evening." He says. He's learned the best way to hide things from anyone - and probably double-so for Glimmer - is to act like they're boring and mundane. "Do you really want to go over financial capital-to-energy conversion math?" he offers, sliding it slightly closer to her but not taking his hand off it or opening it. "I'm just putting it away so I can forget about it as long as possible. And I guess it should be secured." he notes, shrugging.

    "You know there's probably a map online. Have they gotten you a smartphone yet? Or have you already broken it?" he asks, and while he doesn't sigh there's exasperation in his voice. "Or we could talk about whatever it is that you're keeping bottled up."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon made a face like he'd just offered to let her have a bite of beetle stew. Well, she'd actually probably have had some, but like. How a normal person would react, pulling back and making a big X with her arms. "NOPE! The boring paperwork stuff is your department." Pause. "Literally. I can light it on fire for you if you want? Diversions are *excellenet* for getting out of responsibilities like that."

However, the talk of a map made her pause. "There's a MAP?! And yeah, I have a phone! It's not the smartest thing, but it's okay. I've been watching videos posted by some of my friends." she couldn't wait to tell them she was here! ... Just as soon as she found out how to get her stone out of here.

"Welllllll... it's about the fanfic... thing... I may need your help with it." She then teleported off, landing on the stone. "Soooo... how much of what actually happened do you know? Like, Horde Prime, for example?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Satisfied that Glimmer's unlikely to look at the folder or even remember much about him having it, Takashi nods a bit and unlocks his suitcase before putting it in there with other papers.

    "I'm sure someone's put a map online. There's probably a whole walkthrough in a video format, too. People love to talk and think people care about what they are talking about." Takashi says.

    "Anyways, speaking of... speaking... I don't know much of anything about your world really. Catra isn't the most talkative individual and from my interactions with Double Trouble, telling the truth isn't that one's specialty either." He pauses. "Well, and I know some of what She-Ra was saying, about Catra, but it doesn't seem to jive with what Catra knows. Hence, you know... fanfic. But the longer time goes on here in Obsidian, the weirder stuff happens..." Takashi says, gesturing to Glimmer, her crystal, and where his desk 'used' to be. "...so I can't really dismiss it out of hand, not with even more of you offworlders showing up every week it seems like."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a small nod before, once again, teleporting so she was a bit away from him. "Right, yes, walkthrough, ohhhh. That was the kind of stuff Bow always did. RIGHT! So, okay. It was all true. Catra pulled the lever, destroyed the world, kind of. Adora fixed it, but... it killed my mom," Glimmer said, her voice getting tense after that. "Or... more stranded her inbetween dimensions." And there was definitely gritting of teeth there. "And suddenly I was the queen, right? And so war wasn't going so good. And turns out that Hordak's horde was just a portion, a fragment, of the real horde. Great, right? Absolutely *great*. And from there it kind of gets worse. Catra betrayed Entrapta and Hordak, we fought her a lot, there was some spy stuff. There was this one AI thing called Light Hope, oh, she was a piece of work. Been lying to us from the beginning. We stopped working with her, but then the Horde was launching their big offensive and guess what Bow and Adora do. They abandon us so they can go and mayyyyybe find Entrapta on an island that supposedly nobody has ever lived through. So I'm trying to not let all of my people be overrun... and Light Hope tricked me into almost destroying the whole universe, yada yada, Horde Prime tracks the planet from that and we end up getting out of the dimensional space our planet was trapped in. And so, from there, things get a little weird." GET?!

"But the big thing you need to know is that Horde Prime had these mind control chips that like. Bonded to people's spines. Catra ended up getting one when she tried to join Horde Prime, before she betrayed him to help me get out of prison and save Adora, and now Bow has one on HIS neck and Horde Prime is dead but that's fine because you know who's in it? LIGHT HOPE! You know, the crazy girl who tried to BLOW UP THE UNIVERSE and who's sole purpose in EXISTENCE appears to be BLOWING UP THE UNIVERSE!"

Deeeep, deep breathes, calllllllming breathes.

"So, in summarization, Catra says you're smart with like... machines and stuff. Do you think you could remove a mind control chip from someone without like... killing them?"

Throughout that spiel, she'd been teleporting wildly around his office, picking things up, placing them in new places, like some kind of video game character suffering from massive lag and rubberbanding.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    That is... a lot to take in, Takashi notes. It's a lot of a lot. There's so much going on that his mind has to sort of keep it in cache and work through it over time, so there's a bit of silence while he takes apart Glimmer's rapid fire speaking. She doesn't just teleport like a laggy character, she infodumps like one.

    After a moment, his first comment is simply. "I would like my universe to stay un-destroyed if at all possible." Which puts him at odds with some of Obsidian, though he doesn't know it puts him at odds with the entire organization. "My planet, universe, dimension, all of that should really remain right where it is." He adds, firmly. "So that I can keep that the case I might have to ask you some more questions later. But it sounds like you're really worried about this 'chip'. Do you mean like a computer chip?" It's Glimmer. For all he knows she means 'a small round thing that looks like a potato chip". "And it gave them control over his actions? He seemed pretty normal sparkle-squad to me when I ran into him. None of the crazy cackling or anything you expect from someone focusing on destroying a universe." It's weird, in a sense, to realize he KNOWS people who think that's a good idea.

    "I know if anybody can do it I can do it. But it really depends on how deep in there it is. I do know a couple of people who can heal others in a pinch too, though." he notes.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a small nod. "Exactly! What kind of person wants to blow up a universe, I mean come ON! And yeah, a computer chip. Entrapta used to play with all of that stuff, but like this!" She teleported off, then came back with a small... someone's pin drive. "But on the back of the neck, you know? And that's what's so wrong with her! Her programming is to activate this thing that's basically a weapon to wipe out the universe. We ended up breaking it and tearing it apart, since to make it they'd had to more or less set up our planet as a BOMB! And releasing all that magic made it free again and made the whole thing unuseable. But, you know? She's just focused on her programming. It's not pleasure, she doesn't hate anyone. The enemies she's trying to destroy and the people who made her don't even EXIST anymore. Yet... she wants to blow everything up because that is what she was told to do."

"... She can't do it now. But I do not expect that to stop her from trying and hurting Bow in the process. I... don't know how much control the chip has. It's obviously a changed version of it. He didn't sound like her when I saw. But there's no telling what she could be planning. She tricked me and she could trick him."

She then sighed and moved a hand to her forehead. "... But no. Bow getting hurt is *not* an option. If... we just need to find a way to get it out of him safely. Entrapta figured it out and Catra says you're some kind of genius, so we'll need to see if we can have you get it out. And... I don't know. Toss the chip into a gameboy or something. Let her blow up some fake universes or something."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "People with a serious axe to grind, people who think they'll be able to build it back better, people who are tired of immortality... honestly, I probably know more about the answer to your question than you legitimately wanted." Takashi says in reply to 'who wants to blow up a universe'.

    "But honestly all you had to do was tell me that somebody else figured out how to do it and that I'd get to walk away with some technology to disassemble and you'd have me. Plus..." he says, and then his whole form kind of visibly deflates, because saying it SOUNDS like good guy talk, even though it's just Good Teamwork from him "... You're part of my team and that means just like my problems are your problems - that means your problems are mine. Just make sure I get to take credit for having helped save them." he says. He might need to call in that favor later. "Good thing he didn't hit me with that goop arrow while my mouth was open or I might have an entirely different opinion on helping him. I mean, I'm assuming Bow is the guy with a bow. Your world names people very "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" from what I can tell. Except whatever the heck a She-Ra is. Must stand for Large Angry Lady."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon actually SPARKLED at him when he agreed. She smiled and she sparkled. So much. "Heeee! And nahhhhh, he'd have... have... you'd really let a small, tiny thing like getting some goop in your mouth resign him to being.... whatever it is that Light Hope wants? Knowing her, she might just be waiting. Every second could be a second closer she comes to taking him over entirely, to turning him into nothing more than a pawn for her terrible, horrible whims! She might think she can blow THIS planet up or something! I don't know, she's crazy!"

Then... "And thanks, though. I mean... that you care. And yeah, do whatever you... want... with the..."

He'd do it for new tech. Her eyes narrowed slightly and... "Do... you like tiny muffins?"

Looking a hint.... scepticle.

"Right, either way he's apparently... dating... a girl named Sayaka. She seems nice and is apparently willing to work with you. So, whenever you feel you're up to it, we can go and grab Bow. It'll be like... kidnapping! Minus the kidnapping part. So just awesome!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi sighs. "Look, there's a lot of people who think they can blow this planet up. Or who are doing things that might. Some of them work in this building." He pauses. "None of them work for me. One of the advantages of being part of Obsidian is getting to keep an eye on them - but don't tell anyone that. We would certainly never work against the whims of other departments or Obsidian employees." He adds, with a sort of 'no seriously don't let this get out' look in his face.

    "One more to keep an eye on isn't that big a deal, except this one's attached to a sparklesquaddie." He says, shrugging. "It's harder than people think - destroying even a planet - otherwise one of the jokers trying it would have succeeded. Just because your world came close - your world didn't have the same things we do." he continues. "Though on the other hand maybe it's best not to push it. One less apocalypse is probably better."

    He tilts his head at her. "I mean, I'd prefer a regular muffin. Assuming it's a kind of muffin I like. Tiny or not, pass on bran muffins." he notes. "Still, Sayaka - I think I encountered her once. She was dating a... coworker. She got better." The coworker, or Sayaka? Both. "Actually..." he snickers "...you might say that a part of Sayaka is very close to this department."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon nodded, a smile on her lips. "Ahhhhh. I understand. Of course not, I'd never, ever do such a thing. I'm just here to help out my amazingly awesome boss, nothing else," she said happily, a big grin on her lips. "Don't worry, though. I'm a queen. It... taught me a lot about... expectation management." A lot more than she wanted to experience...

"No, I doubt it will. I very much doubt there is anything here she could do to blow up the planet." Pause. "But I don't doubt she could blow up a lot of things in her failures. A lot of people could get hurt. Innocent people who have nothing to do with any of this. Just because the worst possible situation is unlikely doesn't mean the possible collateral is acceptable. Or worse... she helps somebody else succeed at their stupid ideas. She will say just about anything if she thinks it will get her what she wants..."

"Really? You people can... interdate? Or did they break up when she came and joined here? Oh moons... it wasn't *Catra* was it? Because that's a headache nobody needs. If Catra is going to be pining over two people who are obsessed with her... Oh. So, um, anything else you need to know? About the whole like... all of it?" she asked with a sheepish smile. "And we might have to like... knock him out... and pin him down. On the upside, Sayaka will probably help! She does work for you from time to time or something, right?

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi may not admit it, but he is actually against innocent people being needlessly hurt. Energy drained is different, and getting in his way marks you off the innocent list. And if it's got to happen for a plan, it's got to happen... so it's a policy with a lot of fine print. "She absolutely sounds too dangerous to leave with the Sparklesquad for sure. They're the kind of trusting people who would get into trouble with something like that." he says, nodding.

    Takashi laughs. "No, no. She was dating another member, but they broke up. I don't think interdating is strictly prohibited or anything, it's just it usually ends up with the two not being on opposite sides forever - or breaking up like Sunbreaker and Sayaka did. And... Sayaka doesn't work for me, no." he shakes his head. "I just helped her out once. We've fought each other too. Just how it is, sometimes we have different opinions about something and I'm right so I have to try not to let them screw everything up or ruin the use of a vital resource."

    Then he gets a little bit more serious and looks to Glimmer. "So... because of Catra, your mother is... gone?" he asks, quietly. "And I haven't seen you try to get her killed yet." he says, looking at her. Skeptical himself.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon couldn't help but grin when he said 'because he was right'. Sure he was. Well, I mean. Maybe he was. She didn't know. Buuuut... she suspected he miiiiight be a bit biased. You know. Somehow. Juuuuuust a bit. Buuut... "You're not wrong. I love Adora and Bow, with all my heart. But... they're very much.... they don't understand that, sometimes? You have to do... what's not nice. You have to... you have to do things you don't want to, for the good of everyone. They don't understand that carrying the weight of other people means you sometimes don't have the luxury of keeping your hands clean because *other people* suffer for it. And, unfortunately... this can make them... a bit gullible at times."

She froze when he commented about Catra and her mother. She took a slow, deep breath. "Yeah. Catra and I... we have a... complex relationship."

"I'd be lying if I said a part of me doesn't want to grab her, teleport into the bay and drown her. With a vengeance..." she said bitterly.

"She killed my mother. She made my life *hell* for years. She has reveled in causing pain and destruction everywhere she goes. And you know why? Because I don't. Apparently she has a big crush on Adora, but I don't think that's it. She... cares. I guess? But she has a hell of a way of showing it."

Melog's head rose and it glanced to her.

"But... she saved me when I was on Horde Prime's ship. She thought we'd just leave her. I... can still remember what she said. 'I want to try doing that one good thing in my life'. In that moment? She... really seemed to believe that nobody in the world could care about her. Ever would."

"... My mom wouldn't want me to seek vengeance on her. And so.... I've been... burying that anger, that hate. I've been trying to let it go. A part of me still hates her. A small part. A part of me is almost happy she's like this. How terrible is that? Because now? Now she's not the Catra who tried to save me. She's the Catra who killed my mom. And I could *hurt her so much*. She has *no idea* what I'm capable of now. She only knew me... knew me before. I attuned to the Moonstone properly. We fought so many times after that and she *couldn't* handle me. Now? It'd be like exploding horde soldiers in a tank."

Then she sighed and shook her head. "But no. That'd break Adora's heart. Bow wouldn't... like me if I was like that. He'd... he'd say I should forgive her. I don't know if I ever *can*. Especially not now. She doesn't even *know* what she's done. She doesn't listen if we tell her, but then when did she ever listen to anyone? So... for now? I guess I'm keeping an eye on her... maybe help her. See if she ever... wakes up. Remembers everything."

"... And if she ever goes too far, well... sometimes it's a queen's duty to put an end to the threat. No matter how much it makes everyone else hate her..."

Glimmer sighed and teleported back onto the Moonstone, now petting Melog. "But I doubt it'll come to that. Catra's an arrogant idiot, but she's not nearly as powerful as she thinks she is. I don't see her managing to blow up the world again anytime soon. Well. Unless *you* create some kind of world destroying device. If you do? Make sure only *you* can pull the lever. Otherwise she'll pull it just to spite all of us."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi sits down on the edge of his desk and looks at Glimmer. "So. I didn't know my mother, not directly. She died when I was young. And... my father... took himself away from me on his own choice." He says. "So I don't know what I would do in your shoes. Like if I had a chance to speak to my mom, to hang out with her... to know her beyond the documents she left? And they took that away from me? There's not anything in this world that would stop me from making that the last thing they were around to regret." he admits. As he does so, there's a few wispy shadows that form around his hand, without his conscious input.

    He shakes his head as the wisps dissapate. "I don't really know what drives Catra. It's one of the reasons I don't give her more assignments, more trust. I'm pretty good at figuring people out. And if they and I want something that can be gotten together we can work well together. But I can't always figure out what Catra wants. I can sometimes convince her or drive her to a specific outcome. But.... what drives her overall? I'm not sure. I can't really trust someone like that, because they might... I don't know, try to destroy the universe on a whim." He says, using Glimmer's example.

    "She's got an obsession with Adora, but I'm not sure what the nature of it is. Complicated, for sure." he notes. "But there's a lot of stuff I'm still trying to figure out. You come from a world where there was an invading force on spaceships called The Horde - like, that's fiction territory for us here. But I meet aliens every day... to certain people I might even count. Sounds like your world is a lot like the others I hear of where magic is normal. Where there's no 'regular world' and 'magic world' and no 'regular people' who can't see magic. But that's obviously not the way it is here. We may be the odd planet... dimension... universe... whatever separates us from the others, the odd one of those out."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was silent for a long, long moment, before nodding. "I... I understand that. I was... lucky. My mom was there for my childhood. But... the Horde took my father from me when I was a child. So maybe I was just... used to it. Though, heh. It turned out they're really bad at killing people, because he came back." And while she smiled for a moment, it faded. "But... mom never knew. She never... got... to see him. Come home. She... was left there, thinking he was gone. Thinking I was alone... and until we ended the war, I was..." she mumbled softly. Sure, Bow and Adora were there. But that wasn't the same. "I... I don't know. If... Catra doesn't go back to being who she was? Doesn't... go back to being good? It might be hard not to take it out on her. To treat her like she's acting, not who I know she can be."

"... But for now? I'm being the bigger person. That's the fun of being a good ruler. You don't always get what you want. No matter how satisfying and *incredibly amazing* it would be to grind her sneering face *into the dirt*," Glimmer said, with jsut a hint of bitterness.

"As for what drives her? Other than pissing off everyone? I don't know. It really wasn't until it looked like... well... like everything was lost that she gave up and actually helped us. So I guess there's some good there. Deeeeep down. But for all I know that was something she gained after she nearly destroyed our world. I'm still hoping I can find some semblance of why Adora is so focused on that girl while I'm here."

"... Magic was common on our world, in the plants, the world itself. But most people couldn't use it. Bow couldn't, for example. He still fought with us, though. That's why us princesses were so important. We could tap into that power, so it was our job to protect the world from threats they couldn't face. And... it... was terrible just how often we failed," she whispered, closing her eyes and turning her head up. "We still kept fighting, though. Eventually, we did it... but we lost so, so much during it... I'm not going to fight Catra, though. If that's what you're worried about. 'My problems are your problems', right? So your problems are mine and whatnot. As long as nobody tries to damage my stone, I'm cool working with all of you people."

"... I do gotta say, everyone being *human* here, though? THAT'S so weird. Just... so, so weird."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's funny sitting here in an Obsidian office hearing you hope someone goes good." he says, shrugging. "Ususally when people see the world in black and white, in good and evil... when they're waxing poetic about someone swapping over to 'team good' they are about to give me a justice speech and try to destroy one of the few things my mother was able to give me - my powers." he says. "Like, you do realize right now you're not on the same team as Bow and Adora?" he asks. And then he laughs a little.

    "From what I gather, most of tHe history of the world you have is probably fighting against the horde, and then the... bigger horde?" he asks. "But Catra is from the horde. Is everyone from there as... interestingly damaged as she is?" he asks. "Do you know of anyone else who came from there? Because... by a lot of perspectives, Obsidian is the equivalent to the Horde - at least the parts of it that don't want to destroy everything - instead want to rule everything, for one reason or another." he notes. "But that's a very... human instinct, at least our humans. To try to unite and command. One person's security and order is another person's smothering tyranny."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a small shrug. "The world isn't black and white. I know that better than most. I've done things that would make a lot of people think I was the badguy. All I really care about is results, being the bad guy is fine so long as the outcome is what I want. and right now? The outcome I want is keeping my stone safe." She put her palm against it.

".... My mom and I were the ones connected to it. I used to be... the weak one, you know? Before that.... Before my mom passed. We split its power between us. Then I got all of it."

"... It's really all I have left of her, now. And I won't... let anything stop me from protecting it. Ever."

Glimmer teleported to appear next to him and then smiled up at him. "Every. Single. One. I could tell you *tales* about this guy called Kyle. And Hordak? Their leader? Oh my gosh. He was JUST as broken. Let me tell you, finding out *he* wasn't as bad was a trip. It made.... get together's quite awkward, let me tell you. He received alllll the glares from pretty much everybody who ever came. Luckily, he stayed off on his own little... thing... after that."

"... As for Obsidian being the Horde... ehhhh. I don't really think so. I mean, you've got some terrible people here... but... Things are different here. Hard to really... explain how. But it's really... just... not the same. I've... I grew up with war. With destruction. With people losing their homes every day... The nature of this world's magic is so... different. I'm honestly unsure how I'd even begin to define it to anyone."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi nods, listening to Glimmer. "I try to keep things from escalating as best I can. It's better for everyone - for us, for the civilians, even for the sparklesquad - if the fight stays low key. If it's all... vaccuum cleaner youma and energy drains instead of like... a full war." he says. "As long as we're kind of able to keep things from going too crazy. But it's a delicate balance."

    "You know there are sometimes when I think it'd be nice if the Sparklesquad was right, if I didn't need to be succesful to protect everything. But I've seen stuff - stuff in the Dusk Zone, that you might not have noticed... and Dark Energy is powerful. And we can't give up that power when we're going to need it to protect ourselves and our loved ones. It's not enough to just be smart. We need to be strong enough too." he says.

    "If that stone connects you to your mother I understand your protectiveness. Before I'd thought it was power - which is a good reason to keep it under your control. But, if it's also an artifact of your mother, I get it." he notes.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a light shudder, teleporting back into the hammock. "Yeah, I saw a lot of weird stuff in there. Was thought I was still stuck for a while, not sure how I even got there. Weeeeird place. Actually, I wanted to ask you something else about that. How did you move there without getting burned? Every time I went behind the area I cleared out, ti was like there was.... acid chewing on me. Trying to tear me apart. Really made it hard to go out. But you were just in it, like it was a nasty rain. Was it some kind of spell?"

She reached out and put a hand against the stone. "It's... it makes me feel close to her again. I won't ever let *anything* happen to it. Ever. I'll protect it. Always... I promise."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi shakes his head. "No, it's toxic to you because you're nott from there. According to all of the research I have access to, the Dusk Zone is sort of like our world - if Dark Energy was the primary energy. It's a mirror of our world in some ways, influenced by it in others, and its own thing too. Hard to explain. But the reason I'm not hurt by it is that it doesn't attack me. I'm basically from there. In a roundabout way. I'm also from here. It's... complicated, and has to do with my mother. She was researching Dark Energy and... I got exposed a lot, before I was born. So I've always had it, even if I didn't always know how to control it." He says, before some shadows coalesce into existence in his palm. Little shadowy stick-figure people. "So for most people, they go into the Dusk Zone and the energy eats away at them because it's counter to what they are made of. Norie can go in because her body was replaced by Dark Energy. So she's native too. And if you use Dark Energy you can go there... for a while. Depends on how strong you are. But if you're not Dark Energy at your core it'll reject you eventually." he says.

    "And in this case reject you means 'eats away at you' yeah." And then he looks at Glimmer. "I'll help you protect the stone too. I wish I had more things of my mother's, more than just research notes and an old picture. I understand how important it is to you now."

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave a small nod. "Dark energy, huh? Well, I sparkle... but it's not like I haven't tampered with dark magic in the past. I used to work with a woman called shadoweaver. Uhhhh. Don't... tell Catra. She.... kind of knows? But that woman messed with her head. So much. So... yeah," Glimmer said sheepishly. "If she knew just how much I learned from her, it might set her off. But... hey. I'd like to try and see if I can learn some of it sometime. I'd be nice to be able to not be eaten if I ever end up in the dusk zone again."

She gave a light yawn, but still an appreciative smile none the less. "Thanks. I... should probably try and get some rest. Let me know when you feel is a good time for us to like... go and rescue Bow, okay? I figure you've got some sciency doo-dads to gather and what not. and... thanks. Really. My... Losing your mom it's... it's not easy. I guess... So... thanks. For ummmm... just thanks."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi nods and stands up. "Well, this is 'my' office, but I guess if you're going to rest you probably don't want me cursing and tapping on keys." he says. "One day we gottta figure out how to move this so we can get you in your own place." Or he needs a different place. Based on the information he's gathered so far that might be the easier solution.

    He grabs the suitcase and starts to head out. "Rest well. We'll get Bow and that chip soon." He's more interested in getting the chip for himself than getting it off Bow, but one begets another. Once he's out of the doorway, his hand subconsciously goes to the locket he wears underneath his clothes for a moment before he continues out of the offices.