839/Of Souls and Love

Of Souls and Love
Date of Scene:	02 December 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Dark Laboratory
Synopsis:	After returning from the witch fight that broke out into a chaotic fight of its own, Takashi returns to his lab to find Mami there, and some important facts are shared.
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Takashi Agera

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Mami Tomoe has posed:
Well that witch hunt had been a clusterfuck. If stupid Sayaka Miki hadn't shown up, it would have been just fine. But she had to be there running her mouth the entire time and pulling everyone's attention away from the whole reason they were there. Why couldn't she just fight the witch? Mami was furious as she left the Clover Mall, running from rooftop to rooftop and using her ribbons to swing from building to building until she arrived back at Obsidian Tower.

She made her way directly to the lab, mostly because it was one of the only places she actually had to go. It's not like she was going to go to the break room right then. She walked in the doors, and walked straight up to the first counter she could find, cleared some space for her to sit, and then hopped up onto it. A ribbon swirled out of her sleeve and turned into a single rifle, which she rested across her lap.

Then she waited.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera does, eventually, make his own way back to the lab. Once he's convinced, threatened, cajoled, tricked, or otherwise gotten all of the Mahou Shoujo to leave so Norie could do her witch-related work in peace. Or, in the relative peace of a totally torn up electronics store.

    On the way out, though, he spotted something interesting on the floor. And, as he explained to Norie 'it's not like we can just leave it there anyways'.

    And that's why Riventon returns to the lab through the door with not two, but three arms. Well, he's carrying one of them, and it's not his. He is actually surprised to see Mami sitting there like an angry parent or something. He tilted his head to the side. "Are you waiting to tell me I was out past curfew or something?" he asks her. He starts to walk over, because it's his lab damnit, even if Mami's sitting there with a gun. He's got to figure out where he's going to put the arm, anyways. He has not, as of yet, addressed the extra arm with Mami. It's like he thinks that's normal or something.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami sits there on the counter and waits for Takashi to return. She didn't expect him back right away, considering how he was when she left. But she also saw his blast of dark energy that put a hole in the roof as she ran along the rooftops. So she knew he was fine. She'd known he'd be fine. It's why she just left.

As she sat there, though, waiting, she thought about everything. It would not have deteriorated quite so bad if Riventon hadn't attacked Adalinda. Even though she said she didn't need it and it should go to the other girls, he'd still gone after it. He really loved her a lot. It was so clear.

So by the time he arrives at the lab, she's sitting there looking stern with a gun across her lap. But it's an act. He walks in and she immediately points the rifle at him, holding it with one hand like a really long pistol. She follows him as he walks into the lab and then when he finally stops, she pulls the trigger. A bullet fires out and then stops just short of Takashi's head, unraveling into a ribbon that flicks him on the forehead and then shrivels up into nothingness just like the rifle.

"I said I didn't need it," Mami says, with mock indignation in her voice. "Adalinda-chan wasn't wrong. That was a stupidly egregious escalation. It's sweet you want to get me grief seeds, but your card says super genius, so be smart about it."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi doesn't actually fear Mami - at least not, much. The fact that she's aiming the rifle at his head worries him a little - his brain is there, and he's not entirely sure he trusts Obsidian to not screw up putting him back together from a real headwound. So when she fires it while aiming at his head his eyes go wide for just a moment until the ribbon flicks him - at which point worry and tension leave him at the same speed as cooperation left that fight.

    "I heard you say that, yeah." Takashi says. "And I believed you, even if the idea of you having enough of the 'thing that keeps you alive' is kind of counter-intuitive to me." he continues.

    "I would have been fine with it going to the other girls if they had been able to even hunt a witch without starting things." Takashi is digging around in the cabinets for... something... as he talks. "But the thing wasn't even dead before all hell broke loose, and at that point, I wasn't going to fight over absolutely nothing. I didn't know if you'd get stuck in, too. So I made a decision, quickly, that I'd make sure whatever happened you came out of the fight positive on energy." he says as he gets out a glass capsule of some kind.

    "I'm not sorry for putting you above people who had thrown a sword with intent to impale me. Hell, I put you above people who don't throw swords at me."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe hops down off the counter top and walks right over to stand in front of Takashi. Her hands reach up to smooth out his shirt just a little. "That bitch is lucky I didn't do a murder," she sneers, her rage flaring just a little. "What. A. Hypocrite. Did you hear her? I almost considered just blasting her away with a Tiro Finale. I know she can heal, but I'd like to see her heal that."

"All I'm saying, Takashi-kun, is that I've seen you use your dark energy to snatch things. You didn't need to blast Adalinda-chan to get the grief seed. All that did was make the whole situation worse," Mami says, her voice gentle but stern. "So next time, do better." She reaches up to boop him on the nose with her finger.

Then she looks at the arm. "Is that Sayaka's arm?!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi just... smiles. He is -so happy- when she comes over to smooth out his shirt and he cannot, and does not bother to try to, hide it.

    Of course the rest of her talk sours his mood, and then he shrugs. "Honestly, I'm used to it. I really should just start striking first. At least then I get to pick the time things start and they can be mad at me for a justifiable reason." he says, as though he didn't strike first at the very first Witch Mami encountered him at.

    "And yeah I could have used my energy to snag but I don't know if you saw how fast the German girl was moving. I was more confident in hitting her than hitting the grief seed before she did with the peitschenkabel, and there was a reasonable chance given the trajectory I'd have tagged her with the line anyways, and we'd just be fighting her with less of an advantage." he says. "It's more of a tactical choice than it appears. Especially given that she didn't even participate in the fight, I'm glad I did it because otherwise we could have ended up fighting Sharpsong and Red and SpaceJerk and his girl with nothing to even show for it.

    If she attacked me out of the blue for no reason I couldn't be sure she wouldn't chase you down and while I'm sure you can beat her, don't think I'm not aware that your energy isn't free. I produce Dark Energy and basically sometimes have to vent it, one way or another, but you're like a car and magic is your gas tank, and I do not want you to come out of a witch hunt with less gas than you went in with. If this was just about the seed itself I could have let that go. But it isn't."

    He looks at the arm before putting it in the glass-walled canister. "...Maybe? Probably? I'm not sure. She cut it off and grew a new one when she got grabbed - Just like *that*. It was kind of amazing and I probably would have been more shocked if not for all of the other chaos going on. So many things happened I'll have to meditate on that whole fight later." he says. "But I -also- couldn't leave a random arm lying around in the rubble. Or in a dumpster or something. Normies would go looking for its owner." Takashi 'explains'. "I could yeet it into the Dusk Zone, but then it might turn into some sort of demonic hand and go after people, so that's out. So I guess here we are." he says. "Maybe I can learn about her powers from it. Or maybe it's just gonna be the Tower's strangest conversation peice, I dunno."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Oh, she had a reason. Her stupid moral superiority. She seems to think she knows what's best for everybody and that she can hand out punishments and lessons as she sees fit," Mami says, her nose wrinkled with disgust. "Which is why she can say it's wrong to attack someone unprovoked in one breath, and say she was justified in attacking me in another." Notably, she doesn't suggest attacking Riventon was unprovoked.

She listens to the explanation and her eyes go wide. "That girl has clearly got some unusual healing powers from her wish. The way she came back from Norie's blast, and and then this? I can heal too, but it's hard and takes a lot of magic and it's slow." She looks thoughtful for a moment, and then she says. "I bet she turned off the pain before she made the cut. It would've been like nothing."

Then she pauses again, and glances down before looking back up to Takashi. "Takashi-kun, there's something I should tell you."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "So... the same reason they always have for upsetting my plans." Takashi surmises. "They think they know best, and won't hear anything different. They do the same thing to Norie, and Fate and Hotaru too." Takashi complains. Then he pauses.

    "Turned off the pain? You can do that? I figured she was just tough as hell, considering she just got up after a few moments from Norie's blast, but mixing that with the arm, crazy healing still doesn't explain the lack of system shock." he notes. "Guess you have the explanation, then."

    He can tell from her pause and her tone, though, this is... a different subject, or a more serious subject, or at least in some major way important. He stops what he's doing and looks at her, full attention. "What's up, Mami?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami smooths down Takashi's shirt just a little more before she turns and steps away. "Some of the girls learned something from Kyubey recently," she starts to explain. "One of them ran off with the other's soul gem, and when she got far enough away, the other girl just dropped like a marionette whose strings had been cut."

Facing away from Takashi, she finally dehenshins. She turns around and holds her palm out with her soul gem in it. "This isn't just my linker core. This _is me_. My soul resides within this gem, and it can only control my body if it's within about 100 meters."

The soul gem shimmers and is replaced by a ring around Mami's finger. She looks up to Takashi, her eyes big, and says, "So, I guess, what I want to know, Takashi-kun, is would you still love me if I were a rock?" Because she is.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi pauses, and regards it, and thinks about it. "Well, if you take out my brain, or my heart, or any other bit of vital organs, turn it into a rock, and walk away with it, you'd have a lot less than a hundred meters before I fell over sideways. But that doesn't make me a brain, or a heart, and it doesn't make you a rock." he says, looking down at her.

    "When I touch you, you feel that, right?" he asks, reaching out grabbing her wrist. "You feel my warmth, I feel your warmth. We're connected right now, and we can feel all of those feelings and emotions. So it doesn't really matter where consciousness itself is located, right? Science doesn't even know that for regular folks, much less you and me." he says. "But you, Mami, are a lot more than just the location of whatever the fluffy white cat rabbit thing calls a soul."

    "I don't love you for your soul being in one place or another, so it doesn't really matter to me. I'm not exactly bog standard normal either, but you put up with me, so... I'm just lucky you like me enough to even worry about it, really."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami's breath catches when he grabs her wrist. "I do, but I could choose not to," she says, simply. "Though I can't think of why I'd do that. It's more useful in a fight," she explains. "Pain distracts from focus." Some of the other girls may have learned about pain management recently, but she's used that from time to time for ages now. Years.

She takes a step closer and this time she presses her face against Takashi's chest instead of her hands. Her one free hand wrapping around his waist for a hug. He clearly said the right things. "Mm, Takashi-kun," she coos. "You always know just what to say."

There's a long silence and then Mami says, "I wonder if Sharpsong knows. Red didn't say who all else was there. If she was willing to attack me just for liking Kyubey because she found out she needs to clean her soul gem, then I can see why she was being such a bitch. That girl projects everything."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi might be a lot of things, but he does care about his girls. He hugs her tightly. "Probably. People get really picky about small specific things like that. Like, you worried about it too, even though it basically fundamentally changes nothing - except for the fact that I might want you to keep that safer than you already do." he says, tapping the ring softly.

    "You and her need to sit down and either talk it out or fight it out, it sounds like." he says. "I don't really care which, because you can beat her in either area. But... I admit, I'm interested in her ability to regenerate herself. It would be nice to not have to rely on the beneficence of Hotaru-chan and lay in an Obsidian hospital bed."

    "Not that I'm going to be making any wish anytime soon - I think I'm already spoken for anyways." he pauses. "Actually, I guess I've never really told you about that, have I?" He asks. And then pauses. "So, most of the folks - the human folks - who use Dark Energy here do it by choice. And then you have the monsters and stuff, which use it because that's what they are. I'm... a lot closer to the second than the first. No Dark Energy means No Takashi Agera." he explains. "I'm about as stuck with it as you are with Kyubey. Maybe more, who knows."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe is certainly stuck with Kyubey. What else can she do with grief seeds? They hatch pretty quickly when they're full. So, really, she needs Kyubey to get rid of them.

"So you're stuck here for the same reason as Norie-chan," says quietly, her face still pressed against his chest. "Except you might be able to lift her curse. You're just stuck with it." She squeezes tightly and then pulls her face back, looking up at him.

"Maybe she's right, then. Maybe you are a monster," she says quietly. Then she reaches up with one hand to place her palm against his cheek. "But you're my monster." Then she pushes up on her toes to give him a kiss.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi leans down a little bit into the kiss - it also helps Mami not have quite so much distance to cover. He is, after all, quite tall. He smiles at her.

    "Yeah, I was probably always going to end up here. But it doesn't mean I've got some sort of crazy desire to see the world destroyed, either." he says. "I... it's a whole thing, with my mother's research, and me ending up this way. I've had some kind of connection with Dark Energy since I was... well, for as long as I can remember." Takashi admits.

    "But all of the stuff I like is in this world, you know? My lab, my friends, this really beautiful girl I know with amazing aim..." he says, smirking.

    "So I guess that makes me a civilized monster, then." he says with a smile. "But... I don't want you to think of it as a curse. I don't. Norie, it's messed with her feelings and she can't touch people. For her, it's a curse, but for me, it's just power. The inconvinences are minor comparatively. I wouldn't want to be normal, it's not the life I'd choose. I'm glad this is my birthright." he says, firmly.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe renews her hug, her cheek pressing into Takashi's chest and her arms wrapping around his waist once more. She squeezes tightly. "You say the sweetest things to me, Takashi-kun," she murmurs. Things like her being one of the reasons he didn't want the world to end. That's love right there.

She just stands there, hugging him for another few heartbeats--is she listening to his heart?--before saying, "I'm glad you like the life you have," she says, and squeezes tightly. "And I'm especially glad you like me in it." There's a pause and then she giggles. "So how does it feel to have an essentially immortal girlfriend?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi laughs, and runs a hand backwards through his hair. "Makes me think I need to make sure I become essentially immortal too. I can't leave you alone, after all." he taunts back. And again, is he serious? Probably more than not, today.

    "I am glad you are mine though." he says, a bit possessively. "There's a lot of work still to be done to get from where the world is to where I want it, and it's much easier with a partner."