484/Honestly This Was To Be Expected

Honestly This Was To Be Expected
Date of Scene:	20 September 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Dark Laboratory
Synopsis:	Darien and Takashi, brothers in all but name, have a fight after 'Subsidaries'.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Takashi Agera

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Takashi absolutely would have seen Hematite post-firebomb and practically bleeding dark energy, his suit part charred where he didn't henshin quickly enough to capetank, his mood... indeterminate. He was smiling, though. It just wasn't normal for him.

Now they're back, and almost as soon as Hematite's out of the Shitennou limo and discussing whatever they were discussing in there (probably him nearly getting hurt again, given what happened the last time he got fire pointed his way), the sixteen-year-old "fence-sitter" stalks into Takashi's reception area.

"Agera!" he says, not yelling, but sharp, and absolutely not 'Takashi-kun' or any of the usual variants. "What the hell?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi is actually later coming into his own space than Mamoru is, and he's walking in with one of his shoes in his hand. "How the hell did this get in there." he murmors to himself, pulling out a thumbtack and tossing it angrily into a trash can. He catches the last name, though, and looks up, quirking an eyebrow.

    "I was going to ask you a pretty similar question, actually." He says, putting the offending shoe back on. "Why'd Sunbreaker try to level half of one of those structures out there?" He asks. Well, he figured it was her. She didn't come back with them and she was one of the major fire-throwers of the group. "Did she think some guard had hidden magical power, too?" he asks, sounding as though he feels rather put-upon. It's possibly telling that the idea of Mamoru stabbing or otherwise avenging himself on Sunbreaker isn't part of his list of expected outcomes, or at least, the part of the list he shares here.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"No, she firebombed me after I stabbed her," answers Hematite.

That's... a bunch more dark energy than his usual amount of an awful lot of dark energy. "That's whatever, I was outgrowing this suit anyway. I'm just-- why the the hell did you put her in front of me somewhere I couldn't just attack her? We were in front of people that we were trying to intimidate and infighting does not intimidate anyone."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi quirked his head a bit. "You stabbed her?" He doesn't seem... concerned, just surprised. He's picking up on the Dark Energy now, but he's not sure what to make of it, yet. "Well, I told her it was... oh that's not going to go over well." he notes, blinking. "Anyways... I told her she should come see how we do things properly, without all of the fanfare and kidnapping and getting an entire crew of people to come knock on the door of an isolated cabin. You know, demonstration, object lesson in the power of subtelty in action. I suppose she didn't get that though." he notes.

    "You been drinking the 'water' in the Dusk Zone, dude? You seem pretty tilted to my side right now and I honestly figured all of your time with spaghetti and meatballs blonde would have pushed you over to the sparkly world. Not that I'm complaining, really. It's nice to see you haven't given up on me, on this. But. I kinda figured you'd be professional about it. Though, I suppose if you hang out with Zoisite enough stabbings do start to seem pretty professional."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I put a rose through her hand," Darien says as he waves his hand dismissively, "right after I told Himeko to screw up the cameras and haunt the shit out of the facility. I'm sorry if that messes with any plans you might have had for her, but you really should have thought of that before you put the waste of resources who tortured Naru anywhere near me." And that viciousness might actually explain the boost in dark energy. He's always had more of a problem with his temper, and usually keeps it carefully controlled.

He sighs through his teeth. "I was professional about it. I waited until I could get her in private. At any rate, I'm pretty sure the sparkleskirts are mad enough at her that they're not going to care that I got a little vengeance. She sure wasn't professional or subtle in the way she took it, though."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "People tend not to take it well when they get stabbed whether it's with a botanical or not." Takashi Agera says, quirking an eyebrow at him. "What were you expecting? 'Thank you may I have another'? I'm more surprised you care enough about the girl in question to give enough of a damn to make it so personal." Takashi noted. "Or is it not the girl but... who she knows?" He asks, looking at Hematite. "Is this anger because of your own feelings or just on someone else's behalf?" he continues.

    "What she did was unplanned, haphazard, dangerous yes. But don't forget we're pretty much in a war right now even if it's subtle. Do *I* need to check personally with you before I drain energy? To make sure it's not one of your friends, or a friend of your friends?" He asks, his voice getting a little bit more frustrated.

    "Yeah, I brought here there. And yeah, I did it specifically to see how you'd react. And at first I thought, hey, good, you're still on team Cool People. But now? Now I gotta wonder how this girl got a stabbing for kidnapping some random civilian, but when you show up and find me full of bullet holes you just convince me to leave." he glares. "This girl's worthy of physical retaliation over but I'm not? You're not? Your subordinates aren't?" Takashi snaps. "Yeah I brought her there to antagonize you and you know what? I'm glad I did, because it puts some things into perspective."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Don't be stupid!" yells Darien, throwing his hands in the air. "If you were a civilian and Sailor Moon kidnapped and tortured you, I'd sure as fuck stab her, and if Naru had been one of ours doing something dumb like getting shot full of holes by a bunch of sparkleskirts and still fighting instead of literally just teleporting away, I would have dragged her off lecturing her to run when the odds are overwhelmingly not in her favor, too!"

The darkness is glittering in his eyes now, rising with his temper, which wasn't in the best place to begin with. He's generating the stuff faster than he did before, almost like the more dark energy there is the faster it self-replicates with violent anger backing it. It curls, Axion can see it curl around him, and Takashi knows quite well how the stuff hurts him.

"Maybe add that to your perspective. She's not some random civilian, she's my friend AND a civilian, and I couldn't possibly care less about Sunbreaker. If you were dumb enough to kidnap and torture a random civilian, I'd lecture you until your ears fell off. If you were dumb enough to kidnap and torture A FRIEND OF MINE that you THOUGHT was a random civilian, I'm pretty sure you'd stop as soon as I told you, because we are closer than friends you DUMBASS. I can't believe you're making something shitty you did to me into being something about you."

Violent exhalation. "Besides, Sunbreaker is literally more annoying than ten glitterjocks with sparklewands."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "I can't believe you're losing your temper so bad you're going to need soul-dialysis because of the fact that you've been called out." Takashi snaps back. "Shitty that I did to you? Sunbreaker works here. You were gonna run into her at some point. In the hallways, in the cafateria, maybe in my office here." he adds. "If you were gonna react by stabbing her I did you a favor by not letting you meet her somewhere anybody would have actually cared besides her you and me!" he says. Takashi walks away and over to the massive wooden desk in the empty now-reception room.

    He taps the desk angrily with a finger. "Do you know what it is that I do here, Hematite? Do you know what I just developed? It does a hell of a lot worse than kidnapping people." he adds. "I worked with Tomoe's research and developed a way to crystalize and remove Linker Cores - or Heart Crystals if you want to call them that. Because in 3 people, somewhere on this planet, 3 magical treasures are held and if we get all 3 of them we get nigh-unlimited power." he adds. And then pauses. There's a point here. "Do you know what happens when someone's Linker Core is removed from them for a long period of time? They die, Hematite. Dead. Even someone who has no magical access at all relies on their Linker Core in some way that makes removal lethal if it's not undone."

    "And they can only be found in pure hearts. So pretty much all of Obsidian is out. But you know who's probably in? Sparkleskirts and their friends. If one of those talismans is in Osaka-san or someone else you're close to who's without an employee ID, could you take the shot? If it was in Sailor Moon?" he asks.

    "Cause if not, one, your priorities are totally out of whack. Two, I guess you're cool with one of the psycho divisons achieving their goals like the damned clown or the 'lets make the world a desert' people."

    "Now, maybe I'm reading this wrong and you're just really, really pissed off that she did what she did in a clumsy way. Because that's what I was mad about - no plan, no coordination, no reasoning given. But it sounds like you're actually mad that she did it to someone you're close to." Takashi adds.

    "Everyone that matters..." and he slams his hand on the table to accent the words "...Everyone. Who. Matters. Works. In. This. Tower." he says, looking at Hematite. "Friend or not. If you're going to sacrifice the future of humanity and start a cycle of stupid vengeance over any one girl, over any one person - then you're useless to me."

    "Do you remember what we're doing here? Do you remember what's coming? Do you truly remember the stakes? By stabbing Sunbreaker you might have deprived me of a resource I could use to achieve our goals. She's obnoxious and annoying but she's also an offworld magical genius who at least WAS sympathetic enough to us that we can learn from her. Try to save one girl, or ten girls, just because you know them and call them your friend - and the whole planet could wither for your bright and sparkly friends and ideals and crap. Nobody's gonna remember if you stabbed someone over Osaka-san or Sailor Moon or anyone else if the whole solar system dies. The most important people are the two standing in this room right now and it's all downhill from there."

    He sighs. "Now, you should let me pull some of that Dark Energy off you before you get sick." Or sicker. "Maybe that's why you're being stupid about this. You never could control yourself like I can." he sighs again.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Throughout Takashi's truly growingly absurdly villainous rant, Hematite's eyes get wider.

At 'then you're useless to me,' Mamoru looks-- astonishingly hurt. Not angry, not like what was growing, not like what was generating more and more dark energy, making it curl into his fists at his sides, making it darken his eyes to a glittering beetle-carapace black.

Hurt. Like a little kid.

"No. Fuck you. I'll get a sparkleskirt to do it," Darien snaps, flipping Takashi off and stomping out, shoving the door open so hard it probably gets damaged.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Tch." Takashi says, kicking the desk ruefully. "Letting his emotions get the better of him." he says to nobody in particular before heading into his new labspace - the one Hematite painstakingly took back from the monsters for him.