2007/Tea Time at Mami's Episode 2007: Bitter Apple Tart

Tea Time at Mami's Episode 2007: Bitter Apple Tart
Date of Scene:	19 October 2024
Location:	Club Building
Synopsis:	Mami asks Takashi to meet her in the Cooking Club's kitchen for a dessert, so that she can tell him she's quitting Obsidian. Can their relationship survive such a change? Hah, of course not.
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Takashi Agera

---

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe had been thinking a lot the last couple of months--ever since the incident with the Arthra--and one thing was clear. She needed to make some changes to her life. She needed a life outside of work. She needed friends. She realized that she could get that without even cutting back on her work hours if she just did most of her stress baking in in the Cooking Club's kitchen. It had the added benefit of her eating less sugar, which was surely good for her meat puppet.

It also provided a totally unsuspicious neutral ground for the conversation she needed to have. That didn't occur to her until later, while she was baking one afternoon. She had a lot of her best thoughts while baking. By the time she sent the text inviting Takashi to the Club Building for some pastry, she'd been baking there almost every day for over a month. It wasn't even the first or fifth time she'd done this. They were both at school often enough and she thought it was cute to feed her boyfriend sweets.

But this time was going to be different. She just hoped the spiced apple tartlets she was making would make up for the disappointing--probably infuriating--news she was about to deliver. At least she had something to bake, so she could keep herself together until after he arrived.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera had, on the other hand, been even busier with his work than before. Not with the actual fighting of sparkle-squad members but with research, and planning, and technology. Working with the disparate peices of magic and technology he'd found, poking and prodding what few rules he could squeeze out of the magic side of reality, trying to understand and no improve.

    While Takashi would almost always make time or find time for Mami, it meant the two spent a little bit less time together. But Takashi had no thoughts, no awareness anything was wrong - not with them as a unit or Mami as an individual. It wasn't the first time she'd invited him to swing down to the cooking club.

    So of course, he's there as he always is, whatever other plans he had smoothly shoved aside like a cat knocking things off a table because there was Mami and sweets. He opens the door to the Cooking Club's kitchenette/labroom, and just kind of stands in the doorway watching until she notices him.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami notices him right away, but her back is turned to the door and she's pulling a hot pan out of the oven with oven mitts on her hands. So, she doesn't actually acknowledge him until after she sets it down on the trivet on the counter behind her. At that point she's facing him. She looks up and smiles her most perfect smile. Her mask is on tight. She can't let him see how nervous she actually is.

"Takashi-kun!" She says, pulling off the oven mitts and setting them on the counter by the cooling apple tart. She dashes around the counter and runs to leap at him for a hug. She's in her school uniform with a cute yellow apron on over it. "You got here just in time!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi is at least no longer surprised by getting hugs from her, and so when she runs over to give him the hug, he puts an arm around her, and picks her up off the floor and spins with her a bit. He's a little wiry for that, but the Dark Energy Gym does wonders for someone's ability not matching their expectations. He is, clearly, not nervous.

    "I dunno, I could have watched you for a little longer, so maybe I'm slightly late?" he says jokingly as he sets her down. "But it smells like it's apple tarts today which is awesome." he adds. "So, how are you doing?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe did not understand how she could both feel better and worse because Takashi was there holding her. He was taller, so it was easy for her to just bury her face in his chest as she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tightly. "I've honestly...never been...bet...ter," she says, quietly, though she sounds funny. Is she sobbing?

She knows she's in danger, and yet she still feels so safe, she can't help but break down. Love is stupid sometimes. She takes a deep, wavering breath, and then leans back to look up at Takashi with tear-stained cheeks. "That's the problem. I've never been better. Ever since I started spending more time here," she explains, lifting one hand up to gesture around the room, "I've been happier."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi takes a step back when they move apart, and looks at her. When she starts to cry she can see his arms move as if to reach out to her and then for some reason not complete the act.

    "So what's the problem? You can just keep spending time here. You're a member of the Cooking Club. If anybody's here too much its me." He says to her. "And... what, you think they're gonna throw you out or something?" he asks.

    "It's okay for you to be happy, you know."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami laughs and lifts that same hand in a dismissive wave. "Of course I know that," she scoffs. She rests her hand against Takashi's chest for a moment, and then pulls away, turning back toward the counter where the tart is cooling. "It's why I'm going to keep baking here. Joining Cooking Club was a really good idea," she says as she walks back across the room.

"You're really clever about your magical stuff, Takashi-kun, but people are really not your strong suit, are they," she says. It's not a question. She hops up on the counter and leans back to hover her hand over the tart. It's still quite warm. So she just sits there on the opposite side of the counter, swinging her legs and looking at her silver-haired boyfriend.

"I'm here more because I'm at work less, Takashi-kun," she says, flatly, meeting his gaze. "Coming into the office less, I've noticed the effects of the dark energy more when I do." She pauses and takes a deep breath. "I can actually see the difference in my soul gem after I go into work for a shift."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    In some ways, people are one of Takashi's strong suits; people who want things, who need things, who are driven by things. But in other ways, Mami is very much right - when people diverge too much from him, and he loses that grasp, they slip through his fingers and he can't understand them. Like when they make decisions that make no sense.

    "Well, I did tell you that you needed something in your life beyond hunting witches, and I'm glad you found something." he says. When in doubt, take credit for it. "Life's better when you listen to my advice!" he adds.

    "Well, even though we keep you away from the heavy concentrations, there's bound to be some bleed over of Dark Energy just from how much is in the place, or from the Reactor or something." he says, plainly. "The good news is, we're not exactly demanding folks work in the office five days a week. Just because some people call us the bad guys doesn't mean we're actually evil, you know." Or at least not that evil.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe leans back and holds her hand over the tart again. It must be cool enough because she turns and slides off the counter walking around to grab the knife sitting out to cut slices in the tart and serve two up onto plates.

"There are even faster ways to cloud up my soul gem," she says as she slides one of the plates across the counter toward Takashi. She stays on her side of the counter with her plate and the rest of the tart. "For example, being wracked with guilt over nearly killing someone's mother."

She looks up from her plate to Takashi. "Did you know that when I was rescuing you and laying cover fire so that those sparkles wouldn't hurt you, I nearly killed Chrono's mother, who was on that ship?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Wait, he has a mother? I kinda just assumed he spawned fully formed as the spiritual emanation from a TSAB handbook." Takashi says, looking at the tart. But then he pauses, and his tone grows a lot more serious than from the initial joke. "But in all seriousness... I knew that you hitting a civilian might have been a risk when you did that, bit... I didn't mention it to you because I didn't want to worry you. You'd been all hyped up to go on a mission with me and I didn't want the first major thing we did together to be so marred." he says.

    "I guess it's a little bit different for you because you haven't done any of the energy draining stuff either, but. I do go out of my way to try to make sure no permanent harm comes to any of the civilians. Or hell, most of the sparklesquad when they leave me the chance." he admits.

    "Not something you can say for them, either." he adds, idly rubbing his arm.

    "But you know, just because we keep the effects of it to a minimum doesn't mean that there's not essentially a war going on. And any problems you can really trace back to the sparkles. All of the things that happened there, happened because they didn't want me to get the stuff that was falling out of space-time. None of it's your fault." Or his. Especially not his.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe looked at her boyfriend as he so annoyingly missed her point. She listened to all the words he said, and instead of saying anything, she just put apple tart in her mouth. It was warm. It was gooey. It was delicious. It was perfect in a way that almost offset her anxiety. Almost.

Finally she finishes the entire piece, and sets the plate down. She leans against the counter and sighs. "It doesn't matter whose fault it is, Takashi-kun. The point is, I didn't like it at all. That's the first time you took me out on Obsidian business, and I hated it. All the sparkles are attacking you because you're the bad guy. They didn't want you to take those things because they don't belong to you."

Her voice gets higher and words get faster until she stops and takes a deep breath. "All I've ever wanted to do is help people, and that's not what Obsidian does. They just help themselves. You can spin it as damage control or harm reduction, but at the end of the day, we're harming people to achieve our goals."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It matters a lot who's fault it is, assuming you want to stop the bad stuff and not just assign blame about it." Takashi retorts. "And it wasn't anybody's. It wasn't even Chrono's. He was just strutting around trying to lord over some authority that isn't relevant on a place he doesn't run." he adds. "But look, realistically, the giant chunks of magic spacetech were going to go somewhere - and that somewhere is always going to be best with me. What, was I going to leave then there to see if they could destroy the world while smacking them together like two rocks to try to figure them out?" he says, looking at his uneaten tart.

    "You knew what our business was a long time ago, I didn't hide it from you. And hell, you've fouht at my side before and done a damn good job of it even when it wasn't witches." he notes.

    And then he pauses, looking up from his tart and looking at her. "No, that's not all you ever wanted." he says. "Don't pretend like it is. I don't think you wanted to call yourself a queen for that reason." he says.

    "Just because one civilian got not-even-hurt, you're gonna question everything?" he asks. "Cause I gotta tell you, everybody on both sides harms people on the other side for their goals. That's fighting, Mami-san. That's how it is. You know what they think of Dark Energy, right? Which is like what they think of me and what they think of Norie and that's that it shouldn't exist, which I have to admit, I'm kind of against." he says. "I'm not going to roll over and die so they can bask in an unearned sense of superiority right before the 'real' threats come down, the ones that make the fight with Queen Beryl look like two corgis arguing over a chew toy, and destroy this whole planet. Do you have any idea of the things that are coming down the line? My goal is to 'continue to live' and I'm sorry but that does appear to be unobtainable without at least a little calculated harm."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
There he is. There's Takashi Agera in his most raw, base form. Ego for days and enough rationalizations to feed it the whole time. She knew he was going to monologue as soon as she said anything remotely negative, so she dishes herself up another slice of tart and starts eating it as she listens.

She's three quarters of the way through the gooey, sticky apple pastry when he finally stops talking. "Be that as it may, Takashi-kun, I've realized I can't be a part of it. It's not healthy for me."

Then she gestures toward his tart with her fork. "Eat. It's so much better while it's warm."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi tilts his head slightly, and looks at her at an angle. His hand comes up and runs through his long silver hair. "But... that doesn't make any sense. You're happy here. You've got me! And Norie. And Glimmer. And the dusk-dogs. You've got all of the grief seeds you could need, and people who can get more if you ever run out." he says.

    "I don't understand why you'd want to leave. If it's your soul gem we're already spending a lot of time to fix that. And if it's just your feelings... you can't tell me you'd be happier spending less hours of the day with me, can you?" he asks, before finally taking a small bite of his tart. It's a small bite, because he's kind of quite bothered, now.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami's lips twist to one side. This is going better than she'd feared it would, but he's only taken one bite of her tart, so it's clearly not going very well. But the words that come out of her mouth, they catch even her by surprise, "If I spent any less time with you, Takashi-kun, we would just never see each other. Especially lately."

She laughs awkwardly and takes a step back to lean against the other counter behind her. "And I have been happier," she says, repeating what she said at the beginning of the conversation. "That's the problem, remember?"

She shakes her head. "Silly boy. You always think it's all about you and that you know best, but you're just as lost and confused as the rest of us. The difference is that the sparkles eventually figure it out and actually try to get better."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi looks at her and sighs. "It's not about me. I have a responsibility - I was born with a gift." he clarifies. "If I don't use it to the best of my ability - if I don't save this world from what's coming... then there's a sacrifice that was made that I'm not honoring." he says. "So great power great responsibility etcetera."

    He looks down at the tart but right now it's just not appealing. "So... we don't spend enough time together and you want to drop that down... so you're saying you're happier spending time away from me?" he asks, after a little bit. Someone did not get the message it was not in fact all about him. But in some ways, some things were.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe curls her fingers around the edge of the countertop she's leaning against, gripping it tightly as she just stares at Takashi. Was he always this dumb? He was, wasn't he. Ugh. Why was it cute?

"No, Takashi-kun, you've misunderstood," Mami says, trying to sound patient as she walks over to get the reusable lid that snaps on to the baking dish the tart's now cooled in. "I love you. I love the time we spend together outside of work. I'm happier spending time away from Obsidian, and I want to drop that down."

She snaps the lid on and grabs hold of the pan, carrying it over to put it in the fridge for safekeeping. If she's lucky it'll have all been eaten by the time she comes back in a couple of days. She shuts the fridge and looks up to Takashi again. "This isn't about us, it's about my job."

"I quit."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi's head has been very much in work lately... and maybe it is even now, thinking about things that aren't directly in front of him. But it does get through. He looks at his bit of tart again. Scoots it a bit.

    "I mean, you know that's pretty much the same thing, right?" he asks, after a moment. "You quit Obsidian and I can't exactly be seen with you." he notes. "First Sunbreaker, then Hotaru vanishes, and now my 'girlfriend' quits? Joker's right - it already looks bad, and it's gonna look even more terrible if you leave. Hell, they'll have me thrown into the reactor." he growls.

    "Plus, you saw what happened to Sunbreaker, right? They're still trying to chase her down." He says. "So if you quit the job you're quitting us because I can't come and have tarts with you anymore. Assuming that either of us remain in shape to eat tarts."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami just keeps on going about cleaning up after herself as he talks. She listens to him say all the things she already thought. And when he's done, she just says, "Glad to see you're finally caught up, then."

She looks up at him as she gathers up the dishes from the countertop--except for his--and takes them over to load them into the dishwasher. "I love you Takashi-kun, but I can't work for Obsidian. It's literally going to be the death of me, and not in battle either."

Once all the dishes are squared away she walks around to where he's seated and reaches out to try and grab one of his hands with both of hers. "But this doesn't have to mean the end of us. Quit with me. I've talked to a lot of the sparkles. They're a lot more understanding about dark energy than you think. If you really do want to save the world from what's coming, and you really do want to minimize harm, then I think you could find a place on the other side too."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Oh it's *obvious* you've been talking with the sparkles." Takashi retorts, and his disdain could not be more clear if he carried it around with a neon sign. "I know how they are. I have sparkles in my family - adopted, but still." he points out. "But no, they're not. They're just talking nice to you because you don't use Dark Energy."

    "But for me that isn't an option. I am Dark Energy. And if I start to run low, I'm not that much different than Norie - I have to find sources of energy too - except instead of turning into a feral I just get slow and lethargic."

    "...Mostly I'm just kind of shocked you'd even ask. 'Here, Takashi, give up everything you've got, go back to being a penniless orphan, but it's okay the people I hang out with now only want to erase half of you, and they think all of your ideas are bad too, but come hang out with them so you former employers can make your life hell as well as all my new friends'." he says, and grabs the rest of his part of the tart and eats it in one spite filled bite.

    "Do you know how hard I work? I mean you should since you 'never see me' - I can't get as much done outside, hell - I can't help -them- as much outside. Do you know who told them where to find Beryl when she skipped? Do you know who got sent in with the crew and helped clean up the mess she made?"

    "I'm not going to end up like Hinoiri, turning my back on my power and needing sparkles who never fully trust me to protect me because of it."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami smiles. It's the same fake smile she had on when he arrived, though can Takashi even tell the difference? She listens to his words. They're all words she's heard him say before. Then she takes his dish after he rage eats the pastry. She was waiting so she could clean up, after all. She walks over and puts his dish in the dishwasher, looks around to make sure everything is in, and then puts in the detergent and sets it to run.

Brushing off her hands, she reaches behind her back to untie her apron. And lifts it up over her head. She folds it up, with the back to the outside, so any crumbs won't end up loose in her bag, and then walks over to stuff it in.

And then Takashi is done with this monologue, and she looks up and nods. "There it is, right there. This isn't about some responsibility. It's not about a higher calling. You're just a scared little boy that's terrified he's mediocre."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "No." Takashi says, so pointedly he's literally got a finger pointing at her. "That's not it... I've seen people who were afraid they were mediocre, going through their lives hoping someone gave them the adoration and told them that they were alright and that it's okay because they really are special... that's not what I'm afraid of." he adds.

    "I am annoyed, frustrated that people don't understand. I am a little bit heartbroken that after all my time together with you that you don't understand." he says, looking down.

    "To me it's like the whole world is... prehistoric humans, huddling in the back of the cave for warmth, and yet they're afraid of fire. And telling me not to go out and get the fire, and not to bring in the fire, because it's dangerous." he says. "But I'm not going to live in the cave of ignorance."

    "The things I am afraid of? I go to work every day and am surrounded by literal demons and crazy clowns and monsters. I get into fights and come out beaten and burned and bruised. And none of that scares me. Because what scares me is what lurks in the far reaches of darkness, and it'd damn well scare you and all your new glittery friends - and we need the fire to fight that."

    "But if you're going to walk away from the fire and go huddle in a cave, then the only person who is mediocre in this room is you - and if that's the case, then the real lack of judgement I had, the real mistake I made, was in thinking you could be something more."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami shoulders her bag and looks to Takashi. There's a sad look in her eyes, but her face is smiling. It's a polite smile this time. Her resting smile. The one she always keeps on. She practiced it a lot to make it a habit.

"Yes of course. You're the one who knows best. That's why you have such a strong track record of success," Mami says, ending on a cheerful up tone like she's actually complimenting him. "You think it's fire you've found, but you're wrong, it's just smoke and mirrors, and you're just breathing the smoke, letting it damage your brain. It's not good for you, Takashi-kun."

She leans against the door, pushing it open, and says, "But go on thinking you can solve the world's problems by yourself. I'm sure it'll work out for you. Ring me up if you get serious about it though."

Then she's gone.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The worst part about all of it? Those words, the way she turns his analogy around on him - the way she parries and ripostes this? It reminds him of what he likes about her. Or liked about her. He watches her leave, wordlessly, and only then does he slam his fist down on the counter, once she's been gone for a bit, once he can get it out without giving her the satisfaction.

    "Who the hell has she been talking to." he wonders aloud. Someone must have put some real dumb thoughts in her head. But, if she can be pushed so easily to demote herself from Queen to Peasant, than she was no Queen to be at his side at all.

    "Well... whatever, I guess." he says, to nobody, starting to walk out.

    Except after a moment he returns back to the room and grabs the container Mami placed in the fridge. Not his girlfriend, not his employee? Then all that matters is he would like some more of that snack. It was pretty good, afterall.