99/Disappointed for the First Time.

Disappointed for the First Time.
Date of Scene:	17 July 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Board Room
Synopsis:	Takashi Agera and Precia Testarossa meet. The discussion becomes tabled.
Cast of Characters:	Precia Testarossa, Takashi Agera

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Precia Testarossa has posed:
Precia Testarossa has taken out a board room in Obsidian Tower and summoned Takashi Agrea. The summons had a time and a date and when accessed, magically also added it to your calender in your smartphone. And school calendar. And somehow wrote it on your physical calendar.

The message is clear. You're not to miss this meeting. You don't want to miss this meeting. It would be very very bad for you to miss this meeting.

Precia Testarossa is here, standing and staring out the big plate glass window onto the city. She is unamused nor enchanted with the sight as she can see the reflection of the area behind her in the window.

Which is more important at the moment as the hour hand and minute hand we're just a few moments away of hitting the 'agreed' meeting time. Agreed in sofar as you we're told about it.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    There's really only one reason that Takashi would be summoned by Precia, because outside of the occasional forray into adventure-fights with Fate Testarossa - who has generally been one of the more effective, least damaged Obsidian operatives deployed - there was only one other interaction that involved her he had recently. The Jewel Seed - number Nine, he remembers - which he secured for her but also arrived quite late. She didn't seem to be interested in much other than acquiring it at the time, but she must be feeling better now.

    How delightful for me, he thought.
    He'd already kicked the report of that day's actions up his own chain of command - a successful outing amongst countless failures or underwhelming performances, in Takashi's mind. He didn't take a bunch of company resources and then lose a youma and come back empty handed. He just showed up a little late, with the prize.
    But, somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this issue would be raised by her. He'd heard stories, had only interacted with her briefly, but could feel the kind of aura around her. Different than Directors Mirage and Beryl. Her divison was a much tighter ship, more directly controlled, generally more successful. He could see a lot of it in just how Fate Testarossa behaved, how driven the girl was.
    So he isn't late. He's about a minute early - totally because he timed it looking at his phone - when he walks in. It's a board room, not her room, so he doesn't knock so much as opens the door and leans in. "Here as you requested, Director Testarossa?" he said, acting as though he wasn't sure the source of her consternation. But he didn't fail. He was just late. And he wasn't her direct employee. How bad was it really going to be?

Precia Testarossa has posed:
Precia Testarossa turns around. "Good. You're here." she says.

Then she flings her hand up and you feel yourself flung to the ceiling like gravity just reversed for you, and something, some unseen force is pinning you to the ceiling. She makes a 'come here' motion and you feel yourself dragged across the ceiling towards her. This may be uncomfortable and it's pretty good there's nothing on the ceiling except recessed lighting, so you're not dragged across it. Small favors, right now.

When you're finally over her, she looks up, casually, like she isn't pinning you to the ceiling with unseen, magical force.

"What is your game, Agera-san." she says bluntly. "I'm to understand you're a competent dark energy user, but you can't escape the confines with a sealed relic?" she asks, anger in her voice.

She suddenly starts coughing, even when she coughs. Just shows that little bit of weakness, that force doesn't relent.

"Am I to be taken for a fool, now?" she asks, looking back up. "Because you don't work specifically for me?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi is, for a moment, unsure whether he's more annoyed or grateful that he chose the lab coat over the suit. He has extra lab coats, he supposes. For some reason this is what goes through his mind as he's pulled along the ceiling. It's strange what a brain will focus on as a shield against coming to terms with ongoing situations. On some level he knows he's in trouble, but, if he responded to that with fear and not with opposition and backtalk, he wouldn't be the same teenage boy who almost tried to take on Mami Tomoe and Kyouko Sakura in tandem while injured.
    So he took a breath, thinking he was going to have back bruises the next day, and responded. "With all due respect, Director Testarossa, when I jumped into the Dusk Zone the first time with the Jewel Seed it wasn't yet sealed, the interference from the object kicked me well of course on entry. I don't know what your experience with Dark Energy and the Dusk Zone is precisely, Director Testarossa, but for the sake of explanation, as it has a non-euclidean relationship with this world, you can't just jump from one place to another without having triangulated where you are and where the two dimensions are at any given point in time. I'm rather used to getting around the spaces that tend to link to Tokyo, but I ended up very far away thanks to the powerful interference of the artifact that we secured for you."
    He looked down below him at the big board table, and there was a distinct awareness he might go through it soon. He just hoped they didn't charge him for the new one, it looked expensive. Also he hoped he'd survive this encounter, but you know. Focusing on that was a lot more dangerous. Let rational fear give way to terror and you might become a blubbering mess, and he could feel terror pricking at the corners of his mind already, and all he had to keep it out was a mixture of excuses, hubris, ego, and hope.

Precia Testarossa has posed:
Precia Testarossa ahs in a very sarcastic manner as if she completely relents to your point. "So I am supposed to take your word, and you know so much about the Dusk Zone." she says. "Very well." she says bluntly. She does not send you trough the table. She doesn't release you from her hold, either.

"IF you know so much about the Dusk Zone." she says. "About Dark Energy." Capital D and E there. "You'll have no problem teaching Fate how to use it. Right?" Precia knows Dark Energy and Humans don't mix well. She knows this may be horrid for Fate. She knows this may be fatal.

She doesn't care.

"Correct?" she asks.

"-and since, we.. you know so much about Dark Energy." she says. "You'll be able to provide proof next time of your journey back. Of the various calculations it takes you to get back. Am I correct in this?" she asks, keeping her hand raised.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi Agera blinks. Oh, where does he even start with all of this. Deep breath. Don't say anything stupid. For once. "Well, still with all due respect, I am one of the few who goes there natively. For most other people Dark Energy is akin to an infection, a parasite, but for me it is a symbiote, a part of me. Dark Energy is dangerous to most humans but being without it would be dangerous to me."
    "So, first off, while I am clearly nowhere near your level of magical capability or knowledge, I have already adjusted for the problems I encountered both when sealing the Jewel Seed and when jumping with it to the Dusk Zone. I should not face any further issues sealing it on this side, or Dusk Jumping with it without being off course. Dark Energy I am familiar with, but these Devices were new to me, as was the Jewel Seed's specific interference patterns. Both of these have been accounted for and I have no reason to believe there would be delays in retriveal of any further Jewel Seeds."
    But now there was something else to address. Dark Energy for Fate? It was bad enough seeing Hotaru fight it, try to embrace it, but... it seemed to be somehow native to her. For Fate to use it, there would have to be a change, some way for her to generate it, exposed to it. And while she had been combat-effective, and determined... she didn't seem to possess the wells of negative emotion needed to manifest and control it safely. And Fate... she was younger even than Hotaru. Forcefully exposing her to that? It reminded him of last night. Of Professor Hara. Of 'subjects' and 'experiments'.
    As much as they could in his current state, Takashi's hands clenched. Don't say anything stupid while she has you pinned to the ceiling, he told himself. Just give her reasons to pull back on the order. "And, Dark Energy is... in most humans it's that infection, that parasite. To infect your daughter with it would be... it would be unsafe for her and it would harm her already effective combat capabilities. Your daughter Fate is already the most combat effective member of most teams she deploys with - to risk that effectiveness..."
    He's probably not going to get to finish after calling Fate Precia's daughter twice in such a short time.

Precia Testarossa has posed:
Precia Testarossa listens to you. She seems to be considering your points. But you say certain words. Words she doesn't like. Words she should expect and words that would be perfectly normal and reasonable in any conversation anywhere on planet earth.
Except here, and now.

She raises her hand and you can just 'feel' yourself get pulled further into the ceiling before she drops her arm and you feel yourself just accelerate down into that table. Hard. No slowdown, no cushioning spell. No 'starfall' just full on sudden terminal velocity in an instant.

She gives this a moment. She doesn't correct the statement. It's telling too much. 'She isn't my daughter' is not something she is about to say.

All she says is, after she's sure you're not dead is- "I do not care. You will still try. Get it done, Agera-san." is all she says, before she starts walking to the door. She has no illusions the table might need to be replaced. She'll handle that later. That's someone else's problem anyways, to deal with. Does she look like the furniture store?

She'll close the door behind her. Takashi can leave. Whenever he manages to probably walk again.

Takashi Agera has posed:
Takashi actually didn't guess that the words he said would be what set her off. In his mind he was being reasonably diplomatic, for being gravity-stapled to the ceiling by someone who shouldn't have been in his chain of command. Then again, it's not like he could exactly file a complaint with Human Resources here in Obsidian. He wasn't being insubordinate, he was kowtowing a little bit - but he clearly made a mistake somewhere. That's his thought as he finds himself hurtling down into the table. And there's a thudding, droning sound when he does, and a grunt of very severe pain from the teenage boy who has been pancaked atop the table.
    Somewhere in his pain-addled mind the thought of 'why couldn't they cut corners on the quality of the tables' manages to claw through to the surface. He's also pretty sure something is broken in his upper chest. Rib, maybe? It's impressive what your brain finds in the heat of the moment to think about, yes. That his response to this crisis is 'check for damage and complain about furniture'. Externally, all he really manages is a low moan of pain and being crumpled atop the table, which he did succeed in denting.
    Oh, elbow either cracked or broken. Grand. He tries to say something to brecia but it's just kind of a burble of pained groans. It's probably affirmative though.
    The worst part is, as he lays there trying to collect himself so that he can roll off or grab a phone and ask for someone he trusts to come get his busted self to the infirmary... is that bones can be healed. Especially when he knows two people capable of doing it magically. But knowledge... that's forever his now. He'd do the whole damn thing again. Probably. Maybe. Damn, this hurts a lot though. Maybe not.