994/Christmas In Paris

Christmas In Paris
Date of Scene:	24 December 2023
Location:	Paris, France
Synopsis:	A Christmas Eve date between Takashi and Mami. This will surely go well for everyone.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Mami Tomoe

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Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi Agera and Mami Tomoe are two out-of-place sights in the cold air of the Parisian evening, on Christmas Eve. When one thinks of Paris generally two things come to mind - the Eiffel Tower and fine dining. Takashi has gone out of his way to ensure that Mami and himself get a full Parisian experience together - and because she's been teasing him about one-upping their first date at the fancy restraunt within Tokyo. The two of them, like so many couples, are walking towards the Eiffel tower very close together.

    "So..." Takashi says, looking up at the steel structure. "Did you know that there is a very fancy restraunt on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower? And not like, a tourist-trap kind of place like you might think, but a very upscale place - elegant dress code and all?" he asks.

    "It is a good thing, therefore, that I have acquired a very elegant girlfriend, who wears very elegant clothes, and is the kind of person who would appreciate getting to eat at a restraunt within the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Christmas Eve. Otherwise, my reservation here might go to waste." he says, pointing at the second floor of the structure. "I hope that's an alright way to spend Christmas Eve abroad?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
They are in the City of Lights for Christmas and Mami is thrilled. Sure, it was a work trip up until now. Yeah, Mami ended up spending a lot of time with Hinoiri in Seattle instead of Takashi. But this? Well this makes up for all of that.

Of course, Mami is dressed elegantly. She always is. She is wearing a cute yellow dress in the Parisian style with black wool tights and black mary janes. She has a double breasted brown cloak with a wide collar, large golden buttons, and oversized pockets. Atop her blonde head is a cute tan beret.

Her fingers laced with Takashi's she looks up at the tower as they approach. The boy has a knack for picking things off her bucket list. First Narisawa and now Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower. This is something she never even imagined was possible. She squeals with excitement. "Takashi-kun!"

She pushes up on her tippy toes and leans in to peck him on the cheek. "I knew you could do it."

Though she probably won't ask him to top this. How could he?

Takashi Agera has posed:
And Takashi is already slightly ahead of her on one thought. "Don't ask me to top this, I can't do it. Christmas comes once a year and there's only one restraunt in the freakin' eiffel tower." he says, half-serious but half-grinning. There's a smugness to all of this, but it's less of a rubbing it in your face kind and more of a 'look how great I am' kind. "But you know..." he pauses mid thought because she leans up and kisses him on the cheek and says he did it and there's a moment where his brain is going through a reboot.

    "... you know..." he begins again, turning to her. "There's only one girl I've ever met who's worth all of the extravagance. I know it's... probably a Lot. Over the top. But you're extremely special to me, Mami Tomoe. You let me be me, even though my labs a mess, even though I'm a mess, and you've stuck with me." he says, as they start to walk up towards the private elevator that heads to the restraunt. "I might not be able to top this Christmas Eve, but I do hope we keep spending all of them together." he says. As though it hasn't been a grand total of less than three months, boy! Teenagers.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe settles back down on her heels and reaches across to hold Takashi's upper arm with her free hand, giving it a little squeezing hug. She looks up at him and those golden eyes of hers just gazes. Then she lets out a happy sigh and then giggles. "As if I'm not a mess," she says. "You know me better than that, Takashi Agera."

If she can't be honest with her boyfriend, then who can she be honest with? Herself? Pfft. "I am considerably less of a mess since I met you. You take care of me, and help me be better." She leans in and rests her head against his arm and happy sighs again. "I know you can't top this, so I won't even ask you to."

"Next Christmas you can get me an extravagant present," she says as the elevator doors open.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Yes but you are an incredibly cute mess." he says. "Honestly, we're all messes, but that's better than being boring, right?" Here he means himself, Mami, and the girls they work with/take care of/dote on.

    "That's fair." Takashi says, walking with her towards the waiter, introducing himself in French, and conversing for a moment before they are taken to, of course, a seat near the windows where they can look out over a cold, snow-covered City Of Lights from the wamrth of their table.

    "Another cool thing about this..." Takashi says, returning to Japanese, "...is that we can talk about whatever we want and the patrons of this place are really unlikely to understand it. Japanese not being part of general french curiculum." he notes. And if they look around that much is true, it's mostly europeans with very few North Americans here. "So we can speak very freely." he says.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe follows along in silence, though she does eavesdrop on the conversation with the maitre d' before he takes them to their table. Of course she knows French. With her cloak checked, she looks very light and summery almost, except for the hat. She sits down gracefully and looks out the window and takes in a deep breath as her eyes go wide and she lets out another happy sigh.

She does that a lot around Takashi.

And then he says they can speak very freely, and she slowly turns to look at him, her lips pressing together into the slightest frown as she gives him a suspicious look. "Takashi Agera, please do not tell me you are planning to discuss work during our romantic Christmas Eve dinner."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    And here, he leans forward a bit and grins at Mami in an almost conspiratorial style. "Mami Tomoe, are you telling me you've gotten yourself involved in something we can talk about besides work? Have you gotten a hobby?! Since when? I thought you told me everything." he says.

    "I mean, you'll have to forgive me, but I figured you didn't just want to sit here and savor the delicious food in silence. Or with me only complimenting you. Because I can do that a lot, but I'm a little worried it might get old if that's all we're doing." He is teasing/trolling her and continuing to needle her about which of them is truly the bigger workaholic.

    "We certainly don't HAVE to talk about work. What would YOU like to talk about, then?" he asks.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
What does Mami have to talk about besides work?

Not school. They've been on holiday for a week. They already talked about everything going on at school, and even everything coming up for them there.

Not baking. Well maybe during the dessert course, but certainly not now. That's her only hobby really.

Not other puella. She may have switched teams, but she did it for practical reasons. She's not going to draw his attention to them. She doesn't want the competition.

Not fashion or makeup or hair. He's a boy, and he's surely not interested. He just wants her to do the fashion and makeup and hair.

She doesn't have anything to talk about besides work.

She sighs. "So what were you going to bring up then?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi sighs. "That's kinda what I wanted to talk about, though. I think it was something I was trying to get to when I asked you what you wanted to do with the world." he says. "We keep calling it work, but is it really work for either of us?" Takashi asks, turning his palm face up. A very small amount of Dark Energy collects into it, taking the form of a ring, that then becomes a tiny, shadowy soul gem in his palm. "I don't think we can really say that talking about core aspects that make us who we are... is just talking about work." he says.

    The little soul gem turns into a few somewhat well sculpted figures - a figure in a lab coat, figures in skirts. Standing apart from each other and ready to fight. Before it all stops and the dark energy wisps away like smoke. "You were doing this before your job. I would be doing this without my job. It's not Obsidian that gives me power, or that gives you power. Obsidian is... just a place that we can be for now." he says. "I feel no particular loyalty to them in the long run." he admits, now that they're not in Tokyo or even Japan at all.

    "But... I'm also not about to leave while they provide me with resources. And I'm going to take as much as I can until I accomplish what I'm trying to do. I've got to help Norie-chan and Hotaru-chan. I've gotta stop the people in our own company from causing an apocalypse. I've got to... figure out a way to keep your Soul Gem full because I can't lose you." he says. "And I'd like you to help me with these things. But after that? In the long run? I'm not sure, yet." he admits.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe listens, not interjecting once. Her eyes fixed on his lips as he talks. She's paying attention to the words, really. Her lips turn down and her eyebrows draw together leaving her looking very thoughtful.

"I don't really make long-term plans. I'm just always happy to wake up another day," Mami says, simply. "All I've wanted since I made my wish was to protect people from witches and help other puella do the same."

She looks out the window. Paris is lit up for Christmas, and truly living up to its nickname. "But now that I'm on your team. Now that I'm a little less worried about making it to tomorrow, I don't really know what to pursue for myself."

But that's okay because Takashi has things he wants her to help him with anyway. She looks back at him all serious, "So how exactly is it you think I can help you save everyone, then?" She's not a researcher. Not like him, at least.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    While in truth he'd really grown to be incredibly smitten with Mami Tomoe, the original point of interacting with her wasn't to date her. That was a bonus. A big bonus. A really nice, wonderful, lucky bonus. But he'd mostly just wanted to make it harder for her to treat him as an enemy. (Success.) And that was because he'd also seen how powerful she was, how talented she was, how her tactical mind was. And now, what he was bringing up - here, as the first course of their romantic meal is delivered and they're both looking out at the twinkling, snowy Paris - was to go a little farther.

    "You're lucky in a sense." he begins, looking at his food but not eating it. "You can draw magical energy by hunting monsters. On the other hand, I get to be the monster." he says, with a smirk. "But I don't just need the energy I take to keep myself running - although some of it, I really do. Much like Norie, I wouldn't be very rational if I went without at least a little energy drain. Not as bad off as her, but... I'll never really be able to completely stop." he notes.

    "But... that's not the only reason I need it for. The energy helps me do my research, it helps me trade to other people in Obsidian for things I need to do my research." he explains.

    "When I'm testing stuff in the field or trying to take things, and it doesn't make sense, the liklihood is that it ties in some way to one of those goals." he says. Or at least, he can make a tenuous connection. "When I'm fighting I'm trying to learn things about my magic, the magic of the other girls, the way magic works in general. At least, to the degree anyone can learn these things." he says.

    "So if you come with me when I head out, and help - or if you support Firefly or Norie on one of their acts - you're directly contributing to helping me help others." he says.

    "Plus I... think I may be close to something that could free you to use your energy a little bit more... freely."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe knew this conversation was coming sooner or later. It's a team, after all, and she wouldn't be much a team player if the others were just helping her with her goals.

But she knew this was going to mean going up against her friends. She knew that her excuse that they were just giving her a paycheck to do what she was doing anyway would not be enough any more.

She didn't care. Sayaka threw a sword at her boyfriend's head for no reason. The other girls are less unhinged, but they also didn't try to stop her.

Mami Tomoe doesn't do anything halfway.

She laughs, and says, "And you all certainly need me to support you in the field. You're all terrible with tactics and strategy. I wouldn't be a good team player if I didn't do something."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi finally breaks into his food after he says all of that, and it is, as expected, quite good. At least close to Narisawa's level, but the view here is better.

    And here Takashi had to let his pride take a backseat to achieve what he wanted. So he did. Because power was more important, even than pride. "I don't think I can do what I need to do without you, Mami." he says. "I don't just want your help, I need it." Because he had seen it when she started to older-sister the girls. Mami wanted, like so many people did, to be needed. And he wasn't above using anything to his advantage, even when speaking to his own girlfriend.

    "All of the things I want to accomplish, all of the things I want to fix, to change, to do. The world I want to create." he says, though he's not specified exactly what his world would be - partly because the last time he did, someone accused him of sounding a bit unhinged. "None of this is small or easy. But you, Mami Tomoe, are not just a tactican but you're an incredibly powerful combatant. And I also know you're good enough to not go too far, unlike say... Sunbreaker, who I am constantly worried will immolate someone and that's why I haven't tried to bring her under my alignment." That and she wasn't the follower type. "I know I can trust you to understand the difference between winning a fight and starting a war by going too far, as well."

    "But I don't think anybody I've seen could handle you in a fight." he says. Well, maybe Fate, but it probably wasn't a good idea to favorably compare Fate's combat prowess to Mami's over a romantic dinner.

    "...also on a personal level I'd like to avoid ending up in a wheelchair again. And... I'm going to lose a close ally in Obsidian soon." he adds, his voice dropping a bit, becoming slightly conspiratorial. "So... I want you to be someone I can count on. To have my back and to stay with me. If I can't trust you, who could I trust?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
As terrible as Takashi's battle tactics may be, his manipulation tactics are rather adeptly chosen. Mami is already sold on this idea, and he's just buttering her up. The way to this girl's heart is through telling her she's competent and skilled. That way her brain will shut up about how she really isn't.

But there's more to it than that. He said he didn't want to end up in a wheelchair again. And he's about to lose the ally that rescued him the last time she put a bullet in him. But he's not talking about her rescuing him. He's talking about her handling people in a fight. Handling them but not going too far.

She eats her food as she digests his words, looking thoughtful. Then finally, she says, "If I'm going to be shooting people, I want to set some rule of engagement ahead of time. That way we're all on the same page about what the difference is between pushing the limits and going too far."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    It's far easier to manipulate someone when you actually are close to them and when you really do care about them - just less than you care about you. And that's really what it is. In this moment, leaning back, considering her - he does love the young woman across from him, the blonde beauty he brought here for a picturesque Christmas Eve. Takashi just loves Takashi a little bit more. And that's how it's always been. Normal, for him. The expectation. Hematite put his own good ahead of Takashi's - if Takashi doesn't advocate for himself, who will?

    "I'm fine with that. Rules keep us grounded. Me in particular. Sunbreaker uses them too. I think a lot of us do. Though you're not making use of Dark Energy the way we do - grief seeds are clearly full of something else - I can't help but think your emotional state must be as important for you as it is for the rest of us. Rules that we stick to keep our emotions caged in boxes we build for them." Because that always, always works.

    "It's what allows me to tap into my emotions, to get power from even white-hot anger, because I know I won't go too far." Takashi Agera only ever goes as far as he means to. Of course. "So go ahead and let's talk ground rules." he says, finishing the rest of his course after that.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe takes the last couple bites on her plate--she ate most of it while thinking--and then sets her utensils down. "Well, you said you don't want to start a war, so I assume killing people is not something you're asking me to do," she says. They're both trying to protect people, so that makes sense.

"But I honed my skills fighting witches. So much of my arsenal would be lethal to a lot of those girls," she says. At least, out of henshin. A lot of them could probably soak a shot or two in henshin. She realizes that and pauses for just a moment, sort of looking blankly at the space in between them.

The waiter comes around to bus the first course away. New silverware is put down. Then a few minutes later, their second course is brought out.

"So really, my limit is probably maiming someone, right?" Maiming. Mami-ing. It's about the same, right?

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "You'd probably have to really -try- to put anyone down or maim them in a permanent way. Not that it isn't possible, I mean. We are fighting. But I feel like I'd have at least put someone out of commission by now if it was easy." he admits. "As far as I can tell we all heal a little faster, too. You and I have Firefly and she can heal us even faster than that too. That's how I was out of a wheelchair in a week." he notes.

    "At the very least I'm really not asking you to maim people." Even if there are a few magical girls who he wouldn't mind having out of comission. "I'm certainly not asking you to even match the level of violence they inflict on me." he notes.

    "So, you make those bullets out of ribbons. You could probably make something akin to less-than-lethal shots, right? Or we can at least workshop that together. Beanbag rounds or something. Dark Energy 'pepperballs', but I guess something you don't make doesn't exactly lend itself to easy loading for your muskets." he says, his mental gears turning. "With my brain and your ability I'm sure we can come up with something though. Several somethings."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe scoffs at the idea that he'd doubt she could make anything. "of course I could make non-lethal rounds. I can make anything with my ribbons," Mami says. He's certainly seen her make herself out of ribbons.

The second course is a soup course. It's got lots of rich, warm flavors. A very complex broth with interesting textures among the ingredients. Perfect for a cold Christmas Eve night.

Mami lifts a spoonful of soup to her mouth and slurps it out of her spoon. Then she smirks just a little. Takashi has only seen a fraction of what she's figured out how to effectively use her ribbons to do. She could tell him all of it, but she's not going to. Sure, she trusts him, but she'd rather keep an advantage. Besides, the boy's not stupid. He can imagine.

She giggles. "I wonder how many times they're going to try and reason with me before they give up and just start throwing swords at my head on sight."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi looks up from his soup. "You have the cutest little giggle." he says. That's his primary response for a moment, before he returns to his own soup.

    Eventually, he continues. "Well, the longer they do the better for us. If they just want to talk at you while I do my thing that's better for everyone in the long run. I'm just not sure they will." he admits.

    "But if you can make anything, then it shouldn't be a problem, right? Just make sure you make things that can hamper and injure but not kill." he says. "Then you don't have to worry."

    He sighs. It is his own version of a happysigh. "It'll be good to have someone I can trust and rely on at my side. The fact that she's cute is an awesome bonus too." he says.

    "So. Now that we're there... Let's try something other than work. What kind of music do you listen to?"