566/Magic Guns, Magic Swords

Magic Guns, Magic Swords
Date of Scene:	07 October 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Takashi finds Catra, looking for an update on the testing of the Heartstealer Rifle. Is he satisfied with her answer? Feels like not so much.
Cast of Characters:	Catra, Takashi Agera

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Catra has posed:
Catra is hanging around in Obsidian Tower, doing exactly nothing useful whatsoever. The feline is perched in a high up place, where she can look out the window and watch the world go about its business outside. How that becomes entertaining, is anyone's guess; it's not like there's anything interesting happening. Even the weather is boring.

At least she's got her earbuds in, currently blasting something offensive in both lyrics and volume. So there's that, at least.

The rifle she'd been out to test came back empty, but she didn't return with a crystal (or any other sort of object). She's handed it off to be reloaded, and it'll be going out again soon enough. Maybe she's just killing time until then.

Or maybe she just needs to think.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi wasn't necessarily expecting success, but unlike Norie, Catra hadn't also given him any reports about what was happening. He supposed that wasn't terribly unexpected. Cat. He'd probably have to drag it out of her. He knew she was back since she handed it off to one of the assistants and the rifle was currently sitting on the large reception-like desk in the room she'd been shown it first. But, he also wanted to ask her other questions, pertaining to what Norie had experienced.

    So Catra is looking out of a window when Takashi finds her, and that means she can see him coming up behind her through the reflection of the window. He must know she can, because he's folded his arms across his chest and is looking expectantly at her. It's possible he said her name, but with her music as loud as it is, it's unlikely Catra could have heard it even if she cared.

Catra has posed:
Catra keeps staring out the window, for... not long enough to be irritating, but long enough that she's doing things on her own schedule and nobody else's.

Cat, afterall.

Soon enough she does thumb off her music and jump down from her perch, landing almost silently in front of Takashi. She stuffs her earbuds in her pocket, and stretches.

"The gun works," she comments. "Shot someone, there was a crystal that came out of 'em. I wasn't able to keep it, there was Princess involvement." She pauses. "Sparkle-Skirt. Whatever you call them here." The feline shrugs her shoulders. "Anyway, I brought the gun back. You should make it shorter sine it's close-range anyway, it doesn't need that much barrel."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's a prototype." Takashi says, as though that excuses every flaw. "There's already going to need to be changes. For one thing, Sparkle-skirts keep trying to steal them, and so I'll need some sort of anti-theft situation. For two, it's still pretty big and bulky, yes." he says.

    "I thought you'd be able to claw your way out of any Princess involvement, though. I had higher hopes."

    "Who was it that stuck their nose into your business, anyways?" Takashi asks, tilting his head. Curious. "Who beat you?" he asks, emphasizing Catra's theoretical loss.

Catra has posed:
Catra shrus her shoulders dismissively. "Depends on how you define winning and losing," she replies, letting the... implications about her fighting abilities pass unremarked upon. "I'm still in one piece and I've still got the rifle. So she got the crystal? Good on her. It's not like we can't get another one, she got away with the easiest part of the whole set-up to reproduce. She'd have been better off breaking the rifle."

Catra folds her arms across her chest, and glances back over her shoulder, out the window. Though, it's not like Takashi can't see her face in reflection -- that's a two-edged sword. "It was Adora. We trained at exactly the same place. She's a superb fighter. I've beaten her several times, but not every time. You don't take over hte world by just 'assuming' you're going to win, you need to work for it and be smart enough about your strategy to absorb a lost fight here and there."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "I guess you need that other project I've been working on soon then. If you're losing to someone who has the same amount of training as you. Must be her sword giving her the edge." he says, unable to not smirk at his own joke.

    "Anyways, I suppose I can take from all of this that the gun side of things worked out alright. Hit the person, out comes a crystal? Sounds like it's just the retreval part where we encountered issues. I'll have to think on that. Maybe next time you should take a youma with you... it's unusual for only one sparkle-skirt to show up, so if Adora herself is able to fend you off, Adora and three others might put you at risk."

    "The gun is - for the moment - more valuable than the crystal, but I'm thinking about swapping them to a throw-away single-use variant. So that I don't have people choosing the gun over the crystal every time." he notes.

    "It's fine to have plans capable of absorbing some shock and loss - but it's important not to let that become an excuse, either. If you're unable to reliably beat her we need to change the dynamic, if she keeps showing up to thwart you. I'm not one to risk success on a coin flip."

Catra has posed:
And here the wheels are turning in Catra's brain. This is the Horde all over again; she needs a position for security, she is't safe without security, her position isn't secure unless she's safe, she isn't safe without the position, and it all turns into a massive problem that eventually results in things happening like, for example, getting sent to the Crimson Wastes to die, all because Adora won the battle one time too many.

And she's already lieing to Takashi about recent events. Well, it's not a super big lie, most of it's true, she's just... not being completely forthcoming about the sequence of events.

"Yeah, sure, I'll bring a Youma," she replies, where ordinarily she might have declined that sort of nonsense. Troops are her preference, uncontrollable monsters that you just point in a direction and send are not really her thing, but sometimes you just gotta make do with whatever you're required to bring along.

"Adora's sword turns her into an eight foot tall behemoth, it's a bit of an advantage," Catra agrees. "I've never had the benefit of a magic sword, though I've stolen hers a couple of times. Doesn't... work for me the same way though."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Well, either a youma, or some sort of backup. Actually... perhaps it would make sense if I accompanied you on your next outing. I've made presumptions about your capability but I haven't fully seen it first hand." Takashi notes. "Eight foot tall warrior woman, huh? Due to the sword? A further reason for me to join you. I'd be curious to know how that magic works. If it matches any of the information I have on the magic that's more... native to this world."

    "Maybe she's just like one of the other Sparkleskirts, maybe she's unique - either path gives me some interesting data to think about. You're certainly different from most of us - nothing like Wolfrun despite some similarities, a world apart from Black Lynx - so I would expect her to be as well. So if her magic works here..." Catra is probably used to hearing some nerd (like Entrapta) murmur to themselves about theories and ideas, and that's what Takashi sort of lapses into - for a moment.

    "I mean, unless you have some sort of problem with working alongside someone." He knows many in Obsidian are exactly the type to have such a problem.

Catra has posed:
"Sure." Catra shrugs her shoulders. "I don't have a problem working directly with other people." At least, not until they betray her and leave her for dead, or worse. "Adora will have friends. She sucks up all the oxygen in the room and then portions it out to her followers. Back on Etheria she'd show up with a teleporting sorceress, a water witch, a plant control... person, a machines expert, a cold mage, and a dumb kid with arrows." She pauses, "I mean the dumb kid part, he used arrows for everything. Even purposes that shouldn't be arrows."

Catra leans against the window -- that being the window that looks out on Tokyo from a high up floor in a skyscraper, how many people would be comfortable doing that -- and crosses her arms. "Usually Adora is a few inches taller than me but not super much, the sword turns her into an eight foot tall muscle elemental. Amongst other things." She taps a clawtip against the glass behind her. "The sword can turn into other things too, like a shield, or... a coffee mug. Like, seriously, don't ask about that one."

Catra purses her lips, and clasps her hands behind her head. "Come along if you want to, just... come ready for a fight. Especially if you plan on looking for her. And if you need to get an edge on her, just... threaten the innocent. She can't let people come to harm. Takes it as a persona failure."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "That's not all that much different from what I'm used to. All of the sparkleskirts, they have a civilian identity just like I have Takashi and Riventon. Sparkly colors, bright lights, and now they're in a frilly skirt with poofy arms that somehow resists damage and they can punch a monster across a city block. I'm pretty familiar with henshin." he says. Not -everyone- is subtle. "Usually they don't have the visual muscle to match how hard they can hit, but you know it when they connect." He notes. "If she gets huge that just makes her kind of stand out in that way. Don't think any of the others can't also pick up a flagpole and beat you with it. Okay, not all of them, but if they call themselves Cure Something, assume they can."

    "You always have to assume the sparkleskirts will come in packs, though. All of that friendship and love nonsense means they feel compelled to mob up, like sharks on the scent of blood, when they notice us doing our thing. They can't leave well enough alone." Takashi notes.

    "I always assume anytime I'm trying to get actual work done, I need to be ready for a fight. There's almost always one. Outside, in civilian form, we probably all go to the same school, sit in classes together, but that's just one level of things. On the other level, in henshin, we're in a war. A war of philosophy and power and so much more, a war for the fate of this world and potentially the worlds connected to it, like the ones you and the other offworlders come from."

    "So yeah, I'd be ready for that fight. You should be, too. Expect to be interrupted and treat it as a nice surprise if you're not."

Catra has posed:
"I'm getting that impression," Catra replies. "At least on Etheria we were at war in the open, and you knew who was on your side and who wasn't." Well, until they betrayed you and joined the other side, like Adora did. Like Shadow Weaver did. Something that Catra certainly isn't ready to talk about yet.

"I'm not exactly weak," she adds. "You haven't seen yet what my claws can do. And I'm plenty strong on my own. ...Admittedly, not like Adora once she transforms into She-Ra though, I don't think I've seen *anyone* who can beat her in raw strength then. Fortunately, when she transforms, she doesn't get any smarter."

Catra pauses, and quirks an eyebrow upwards. "Something else you should know. Your rifle? Almost definitely kills the target. It's not a maybe, like you were saying, it's pretty much a certainty, judging from what I saw. So make sure you don't shoot anyone you'd care about the world having to go on without." She pushes off from the glass, and starts to meander off but stops.

"What are you going to use all those crystals for, anyway? Once you've got them?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi doesn't say anything about the rifle killing anybody. It's not something he's truly wanted to come face-to-face with either. Even if it was already known. "Well, in a way, this is better. Assuming our goal isn't to rule over a burned out husk of a world..." which it may very well be for some members of Obsidian "... then it makes sense to keep the destruction out of the eyes of the regular person. It allows us to have the fight without arguing over blasted wastelands. I prefer it this way. I've seen what it looks like when regular humans go to all out war, the devastation it causes - to say nothing of magical ones - and I have no desire to see it." he notes.

    "Well, I'll get to see what you're both capable of if she tries to stop you again. By the way, if you can wait a few more days, I'll have that Thing you asked for." Takashi adds.

    "The crystals pertain to a plan that my boss' boss has. They were going to do something like this either way, I just took the initative to make it happen early so I can get the credit." Takashi admits, surprisingly bluntly. "They haven't let me in on the full details, but... I'm in charge of keeping his daughter safe, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time."

Catra has posed:
"I can wait. Or I can go out right away. Either works for me -- if Adora gets involved before you finish working on my request then it's fine, it'll just be something I can surprise her with later." She shrugs her shoulders lightly. "She'll try to stop me again eventually. It's like she can smell when people are up to something and has to come flying in out of nowhere to stop you. At least Glimmer doesn't appear to have come to this world, though. You should see Adora when she's got a teleporter to just... take her wherever she wants to go."

Catra holds her arms up in the air, to approximate Adora's height, "Hunh? What's that? Trouble in the park? GLIMMER WE MUST AWAY."

Catra shakes her head, "But, predictable, so if she ever starts doing that, just... set off a bomb somewhere or something well away from wherever you're working."

Catra finally does get moving. She walks deliberately slowly. No, she's not stressed out. No, she's not freaking out internally about her safety and security.

"I'll let you know when I'm heading out next. Hey, if those girls do interfere, we can always test the rifle on them."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Whoever glimmer is, she's not the only teleporter. One of the Puella Magi can do it too - dark clothes, purple eyes. She moved too rapidly, to be anything but a teleporter." Takashi warns. "Nonzero chance Adora finds her instead."

    "I am pretty sure the rifle can't punch through henshin armor - don't try to shoot Adora with it if she's eight feet tall at the time, for the same reason." He adds. "I mean, eventually that would be nice, one-and-done stun gun for the sparkles, but we're not there yet." he notes. "Still. I'll see if we can schedule something. I've got some experiments I can't really walk away from this evening, though." he says. "Don't want to blow up the tower because I wasn't there to stop criticality from going out of control." He says this like those words are normal, and like he is 100% serious about potentially blowing up the tower from some experiment.

    "Nah, I wouldn't want to pull her away. I get a lot more information about people by fighting them than by avoiding them. You talk about plans that can suffer defeats without being derailed - well, one of those ways is to be able to learn from your enemies. And that is something I'm very good at."

Catra has posed:
"Noted," Catra replies, in response to there being another teleporter here in Tokyo. Because of course there would be. Why wouldn't there be? No doubt there'll be a shadow sorceress who changes sides at the least convenient moment. There's already a veritable army of teenage girls who have enough magic power to stand in for a small army on an individual basis.

"It's not about winning a battle, it's winning the war," Catra replies. "I've been reading about the military history of this planet." She shrugs. "Wanted to know how things are around here. Look up the Battle of the Coral Reef sometime."

The feline continues on her way, "Don't blow up the place while I'm gone. *Especially* don't blow it up while I'm here," she adds. "I'll let you know when I'm next heading out."