Scene #151: Threading The Needle

Owner	Pose
Takashi Agera	Takashi is standing in front of his desk in the small room that counts as his current Laboratory. On the desk is an overlay, projected by his Device, of shimmering runes and colors. He's leaning down over it, using his hands to move the runes as though they were physically there, changing, rebuilding, building shapes as connections generate and break. It's clear from his face he's frustrated as he moves them around, playing with his quasi-virtual system. When Hotaru walks in, he looks up at her. What had for a few moments been an every day board meeting in Obsidian that then became a fun little game of her not understand politics quickly deflated away into something far more serious, and the two of them both haven't been fully right ever since it happened. He finally gives up on whatever arcane project he's working on, making a dusting off motion with his hands that clears away the entire complicated virtual rune network, he sighs, and looks at her. "How're you holding up? No alerts from the device, at least. Though a moment where your energy signature changed. Just... changed though, nothing in the alert range. Like when you healed me up after my OTHER Board Meeting." he noted.
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe was, oddly, smiling when she came inside. Most wouldn't have noticed... but then, Takashi DID watch her. So he might. However, soon after arriving she looked up at him and her face turned serious. "R-right. I... I'm doing well. I... helped someone. This really, really sweet girl. She was so... kind, and warm, and gentle. And she just..." and there was that smile again. "You ever meet someone who just... whenever you see them, your heart skips a beat?" she asked. "They seem so kind and nice and smart? She'd have made an amazing big sister," she said gently. One might almost mistake it for infatuation... but it wasn't that. Close, but not quite. "I felt so... down... when I left. But she managed to cheer me up. And she didn't... call me a freak when I healed her and I just... I feel... so warm.... when I think about her." And then the smile kind of flickered. "Kind of like... I remember... mom..." she mumbled gently. But that wasn't it, either. She couldn't place it... but it was nice. "Oh! Your ummm... brother? Kind of? Does he have a sister? A kind of... silly sister? I.... might have met her." She certainly seemed more energetic than normal. Or maybe... she was trying to avoid thinking about it... which she couldn't forever. "... We can stop this... can't we? Takashi-senpai?" she asked. "If they... do this... this won't be good... all it would take is one disaster, one mistake... we know what happens when normal people end up in the dusk zone. So many innocent people would die... A little draining is fine. But... but the loss of life... we can't. We won't. Right?" she asked, looking up at him... and then reaching out, gripping his hand. All but begging him to be... the person in Obsidian she needs him to be.
Takashi Agera	Takashi's stern face can't help but soften when he hears Hotaru talk, and he smiles. "You should have had an amazing big sister." he says after a moment. Or mother, but he doesn't say that. "Anyways, yeah, my kinda-brother has an also kinda-sister." he nods. It's good to see her happy, and it happens so rarely. Even now, it's pleasant. It makes a warm feeling in his own heart, a feeling that does help fight the darkness and despair, the anger, all of the negative emotions that the Board Meeting caused to grow inside him But then she's there, tone changed, and it's back to work, back to business. He takes a big breath and looks at her. "Hotaru-chan." he says, using her first name, not her second. Something he's rarely done before. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, on the one hand. It feels insane to tell you because, you're Tomoe-Sensei's daughter. But I look in your eyes and I can see how against this sort of thing you are, and it's difficult." "Hotaru-chan, I know you look up to your father. But... do you think he's always right, or do you think sometimes his plans are mistaken, sometimes he's got the wrong idea, the wrong goal?" he asks. "The reason is that... I look up to Tomoe-sempai too, in a way. He's brilliant. And I think he would think the plan Nephrite-san told us about in that meeting is a great idea, and might well throw resources behind it." Takashi says. "What do you... think, about that, about him."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe stared up at him. "My daddy wouldn't... he'd never... if he understood exactly what it was, he wouldn't," she said firmly. "He's the smartest person in the world! I know that," she said defiantly. But... after a few moments, she sighed. "But... even smart people make mistakes. Dad... dad sometimes gets lost in his research. He... forgets things. Important things. Or messes things up. He's... still human." Alas, if only. "And sometimes... sometimes I don't think he realizes what can... would happen... if he were to do things. I don't... I don't believe daddy would approve this. Ever." "... But I think Kaolinite-baka would. And she'd try to convince him and make him think it was the right idea. And he might believe her. So... I guess... I think... a lot like you. I think you'll both always do the right thing... but I think you'll both sometimes miss what the right thing is and need some nudging in the right direction." ... She was a lot smarter than she looked, it seemed. But then... she'd had to grow up fast. Also, she saw him the same way she saw her dad? That was some high praise there.
Takashi Agera	Takashi thinks about this answer. It's a little bit more Tomoe-Sensei positive than he would have wanted for everything he was thinking about saying. But it's at least workable. "Alright. Well, you at least agree that there are people at points in this organization who have... I'll charitably call... stupid ideas." he says. "Either because they get so lost in the possible positives they don't consider the negatives, or because they listen too closely to the dark whipsers in their mind, or because they are in fact... stupid." Takashi says. "And, sometimes the stupid ideas get farther than they should, smart people buy into them, and then we have smart people trying to implement... very stupid ideas." he notes. "This idea? This Midnight Tokyo? This is a very stupid idea." he says, bluntly. "Something you might not know about - maybe a lot of people don't know, or at least don't consider - is that I've stayed in the Dusk Zone longer than anybody. As far as I know I'm the only human who can stay in the Dusk Zone pretty much indefinantly without losing who I am. I used to ''sleep'' there when I was younger. To me, it's actually kind of peaceful. Tranquil. It feels like home." Takashi says, quietly, moving up from the desk. "It's beautiful, to me." he says, putting his hands behind his back and walking. "But... I choose to spend most of my time here. Because it's beautiful there... but let's just say the local inhabitants are rarely up for chatting. Even if they're not hostile to me like they are other people who cross over. The ones that can think and talk are still the result of some connection back to this world, a spirit or a soul or a corruption." "And... there are things, deeper into the Dusk Zone, things I don't think other people factor in, ancient, powerful entities that are too massive to cross over on their own, but if this Midnight Tokyo project were to go off..." Takashi shakes his head. "Wouldn't be much to rule over on this end." he sighs. "No matter how badly they want to win the war, this isn't the way." And he pauses. "Plus, their war isn't my war." he adds, a quiet admittance.
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "Stupid, terrible idea. The dusk zone it... awful," she mumbled. "At least, to me. It hurts when I go there. Even for a moment. And dumb but... good at talking people can get a lot of smart people to believe dumb things." Example A, the witches 5. At least, in her mind. Protective lil girl. However, as he gave his analogy, she nodded and then... "So... it's kind of like... the ocean. With machines and stuff, we can go really far underneath it. And... some creatures, that are adapted to it, live there. But just because we can go there for brief stints and other things can live there, doesn't mean we should assume it isn't a dangerous place," she said firmly. "And this is the kind of situation where people see... you going there and being comfortable, to mean anyone can. When the reality is that you're special and more... attuned to it. But most people... most people... don't... come back," she said softly. "This... this isn't the war for them to win. Some of the girls out there... a lot of them aren't bad. They're trying to do the same thing we are. Keep people safe. They just don't realize that. It's why we have to play the bad guys, right?" "... Because even if all of them have the best intentions, it doesn't mean they're going about it right at all. Right?" she asked.
Takashi Agera	Takashi nods. "The ocean is a good analogy, actually. The water is beautiful, and maybe I can breathe it like air - maybe I'm not even the only one. And it's got all sorts of cool stuff and it's fun to explore. But the ocean doesn't need to come up on land - that's a flood and it's a catastrophe, not a positive. And they're proposing to basically flood Tokyo with the Dusk Ocean." he says. "I like the ocean and the land, but it doesn't mean I think they should mix!" "I'm really sorry the Dusk Zone affects you like that, too. I wish you could stay there like I can. It's very lonely being the only person who gets it. Everybody else sees it only as a weapon, or a source of power, or a threat, or something to fear. And in a way it is all of those things, but also more." he says. "But it's also easy for me to forget what the effects of Dark Energy can be on people. I mean, you seem incredibly resistent to it, and I can control it, but most people can't. It seeps in and affects their decision making, and suddenly overlaying a different dimension on this one is a great idea." He shakes his head. "Dark Energy is like a very, very, very dangerous fire. And fire can be useful. Cook food, keep us warm. But on its own fire is a destructive, hungry chemical reaction. And most people in Obsidian are running around playing with fire." he says, and returns to his table. "But neither would you want to banish all fire from the world... you just want the people who are qualified and capable of it to handle it." Takashi starts playing with the runes projected onto his table again as he keeps talking. "I joined Obsidian because I hoped I could find other people who handled it smartly, but all I find are children playing with fire." he shakes his head. "And yet, if we banish the fire entirely, we'll be defenseless when the winter comes and we need the fire to survive." He looks up at Hotaru. "And make no mistake, a time is coming when we'll need to be able to harness Dark Energy to resist an even greater threat. I'm just starting to believe I'm the only person who can do it without... burning everything down in the process." he sighs and shakes his head. Okay, so that part was a little lie. He'd been believing it for more than a little bit. But it sounded more topical than to say he'd always felt he was the only choice.
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded, listening to him talk. He was right. It was a flood. And a bad flood. A nasty flood. "You're... right," she said softly. "It is a flood. It... it can go poorly. I... wish I could see it the way you do. I really do. But..." She clutched her hand. He knew the one, the one he'd helped fix once already... "I've... seen what happens when you treat the dusk zone as simple. I'm... one of the lucky ones. I could have died. But I didn't. But... you're right. Just because it's useful, because it's needed, doesn't mean you can just throw it everywhere. Fire is good in the fireplace. Water is good in a pool. But if you drown everything or burn everything, all of the benefits cease to be and instead you just have destruction and suffering," she said. "... And there are people here, I think, like you. People who want to understand it. Who can handle it. But... but I think there are a lot of bad people, too. People like Kaolinite, like... that professor. People who don't understand how dangerous it can be. Who assume since they've seen it in a fireplace and not gotten burned, it's okay if they smeer gasoline everywhere and chuck matches whereever they like. Eventually, they'll get burned too. But before that, a lot of innocent people are going to get very, very hurt by their arson if someone doesn't stop them." It was a stark reminder of just how much the girl had been forced to grow up that she was able to even have this conversation with him. Work with him like this...
Takashi Agera	Takashi shakes his head some more. "I'm glad you understand it." And then he just sort of flops into his chair. "Anyways, this has all gotten nicely philisophical - but it really does nothing to address the problem, the one we both agree is a problem." he says. "I don't know if Hematite is on board with thier program - he raised objections too - but I have to assume worst-case scenario, he is. Which means they have access to most of the resources of an entire divison and we... do not. At this point Hematite is at the same level as Kaorinite." he said. "And even if not, those 3 make up his subordinates, so... yeah, most of the resources of that entire divison can be leveraged for Plan Stupid." He's moving runes around again, on the desktop, connections growing in glowing light and then closing out. "I can slow it down, but there's just an economy of scale issue. Unfortunantly, while the plan is stupid, Jadeite, Zoisite, and Nephrite themselves aren't." he says, and then he looks up from his runeboard, up at Hotaru. "Fortunantly, I'm still a genius." "But we'll need more resources than we currently have available to us. Money, Energy, internal power within Obsidian, we need more." he continues. "We'll have to rev up. I need more lab space. A lot more." He kept his eyes on her. "We're both going to have to go out to 'work' more, and take it more seriously than we were. I can make our resources go farther than they will, but we'll still need more to start with."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded, listening intently to his words. Unfortunately, his words were dire. And there was one thing he didn't seem to be considering. "I... don't have access to resources, Takashi-senpai. I... know I have a bit? But I'm not taken seriously. I know... that is helpful in some ways. People ignore me, or won't challenge me when I do things. But nobody actually listens to me, or trusts me with valuable things. I can't get lab space or anything like that," she said softly, her eyes lowered. She knew her worth, at least. She could listen, hear things, possibly... steal things for him. But nobody would trust her to actually DO things. Even if she did work with and for him... He was, more or less, an army of one in many ways. "... Maybe we have to reach out for help from others," she said softly. "The magical girls. They... wouldn't want this any more than we do. And it's like they said. Direct them towards the right places... their hearts are in the right places, they want to help things. To help people. Just like us. Even if they don't... entirely know how. And since this plan is really, really, realllllly dumb... it's not like it'd be wrong to let the details go to the right people."
Takashi Agera	Takashi actually... visibly considers involving the magical girls. "If there were any of them I thought trustworthy and intelligent enough... but every one of them I encounter has been too busy playing with their own fire to put out anybody else's. I can't trust any of them, because they also have a Stupid Plan in mind. They want to eradicate the energy entirely, and then - well, no access to fire, winter comes, and we freeze to death." he says. "Plus, it's one thing to be a little bit internally divisve, I can probably get away with that. But if we get caught giving details to the sparkle-skirts, well, you might survive but I'm getting a severance package and I don't mean a parting month's salary." "You're very smart, Hotaru-chan. Way more clever than most girls your age. Quiet but I can see you're always thinking in there, always trying to do the best. But we are on a cliff edge - no, a razor's edge. We have to thread a needle here. Too little activity and... the flood comes." he begins, switching analogies. "Too much activity, we get caught undermining things and at the very BEST we have no more access to information we need to have to stop the flood. More likely it has dire consequences for you and I." "And I don't know about you, but none of the girls who I've encountered are the kind I feel could keep a secret for about five minutes, much less make the measured and intelligent action needed to solve this without further screwing things up." he explains. "I'm not ruling the idea out should we find someone of the right intellect and temperment, but ''please'' do not act on your own on this one." "But, I have been developing a plan to allow us to act with less oversight anyways, and I think now I'll just need to rush it. But we need to be at least somewhat effective. We need to secure some magical items, energy. We need to visible and successful, even if we blow those successes out of proportion. Then I can make an argument towards us being a lot more independent. As a bonus, it would mean you wouldn't answer to Kaorinite's chain of command anymore, either. It would hurt her, reduce her standing and power." He said. Takashi knows how to get Hotaru on board, he thinks. "Reduce her ability in the eyes of your father."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "I... I guess that's right," she said softly. "I can't... imagine most of them would be okay with any of it. But it's right. If... if I wasn't allowed anywhere near this, I wouldn't... have found out about Yochu," she said softly. Even though she had been powerless to stop it. She'd had to reach out to him, get his help. But she HAD been there. Had gotten help. And it had allowed her to... stop it from happening in the future. She nodded. "I won't act on my own so long as I don't have to." She would run forward and try and stop the building itself if she had to. But... but they had time. For now, she could play along. "Gather energy, make ourselves seem... bigger. No. Make you seem bigger," she admitted. "No matter what I do, I'll always be my father's daughter. Even if I single handedly gathered more energy than all of the others together, they'd still say it was just daddy's doing. Kaolinite would try and take it for herself. She... might even succeed." "But you're just a worker here, 'just' another face. Nobody can claim you successes are from your parents. And if you start being very effective... If I'm just the daughter, I can still give you information, help you know where to be, where to go." ... And here they thought she couldn't play politics. Then again, if there was one thing she knew how to do... it was how to be ignored. How to have her opinions brushed aside. But if it meant she could... help people? If it meant she could rescue people like Yochu? She'd be it. Any time. Anyplace. Any day. "... Maybe you can even replace Kaolinite. But... if you rise too high... she will try to take you out. You'll need to be ready."
Takashi Agera	Takashi nodded. "I don't think I want the political backstabbing and problems of rising that high." he admitted. "It would be a real damper on my ability to do research. To actually solve problems. So busy dealing with that kind of nonsense I couldn't actually help where I was needed; too visible, and I could never pull off like what we did with Yochu. Rising too high is a deteriment to my actual desires." he said. He stops playing with the sort of runic table and stands up. "But at the same time - we need to be away from idiots misusing our resources... misuising our time, looking too deeply at what we're doing. We need more space for equipment, more equipment in general, than we can fit in this damned broom closet. Maybe even enough space to store something. That's why the plan is independence, not subsuming her role. If we're doing particularly well to her eyes at the time, in fact, she may be willing to agree to it to get rid of an 'upstart' that threatens her role, and keep you away from her. Protecting her interests and playing into our hands." he says with a steadily growing smile. "And then we'll be able to have access to several places, and we can watch out for Midnight Tokyo level stupid or Professor Hara level evil things and be in a position to control them. Let Beryl and Mirage and Kaolinite fight each other in the open with budgets, but we'll fight with our brains and be much more effective."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded, once more listening to him. It really was proving beneficial to her, having him as her mentor. Someone she could look up to, admire, listen to... and tell her own worries and fears to. And he was right. As usual. Too visible, and you ended up like... Kaolinite. A useless pain who everyone saw, but wasn't actually good for anything. She may have been paraphrasing it a bit in her head. "Did... you have an idea on how? Other than trying to look good?" she asked. "I mean... I... don't know of any real office space aside from the normal office space. I guess... somewhere in the dusk zone? Well... some things. But only things that wouldn't be hurt by it..." If she knew more about IT, she might realize she was, in many ways, his rubber ducky. He could talk to her and while she didn't.... always offer the best advice, she could at least be there for him to bounce off of.
Takashi Agera	It was an apt comparison. Hotaru didn't need to understand all of the ins and outs of everything to point out obvious stupid holes, and he'd already had some new ideas just talking to her. She was an adorable little rubber duck, one he honestly did want to protect (even if he also wanted to direct her threat at things he needed dealt with all the same). "So, I'm still workshopping the specifics, but I had a thought. Here at Obsidian the divisons engage in a tug of war for resources. They fight over money, over energy, over personel, over everything. Success and failure tie in, and it drives them. But... research into fundamental properties of magic, and Dark Energy - that ''information'' isn't the same. If Tomoe LifeScience comes up with new information, sharing it with Beryl Holdings doesn't harm them. But since it doesn't really benefit TLS, they don't do it. Which means the same research may be done over at Beryl's side. Repeat that for every divison and you've got a lot of inefficencies." Takashi explains. "The same work, done over and over, kept secret from others. Harming the organization as a whole, wasting resources. But if only one divison did research and shared it, everyone would benefit but not pay." "The idea is sound on its own, if implemented honestly. Set up a divison who's job it is to handle magical research and artifact retrieval, give them a pittance of every divison's budget, let them share that information freely. Everybody pays in, everybody gets out, research is only done one time. Efficency goes up, Divisons pay less each. In order to keep from favoritism this little research group is not part of any divison - since they recieve resources and provide information to everyone equally." "At the very least we can get them to green-light a pilot program, where we recieve a tiny amount of resources and get our independence and show what can be done with it." he notes. "But, for the idea to end up with me in charge of the new divison-less unit, we need to show I can be effective first."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded, but then... looked so confused as he explained more. "I... I don't understand," she said softly. "Aren't... most of the divisions research? Daddy does his research, I know Miss Testarossa does her research, Miss Beryl does hers. Don't... they all do it? Why would they give up that position to you?" Of course, it would take her a little bit to realize... research that overlapped. Ahhhhh. Of course. But... "But... who determines what research would overlap?" she asked. "Won't they... just ignore your research division if they think they can do it themselves? And just give you the most basic stuff they don't care as much about?" Then again, smaller budget. Make himself a resource, rather than a key cost... She really, really didn't get it. But she also knew he was smarter than her in these kinds of things. And there were magical things, with the dusk zone, only he could do. So she could see a little bit why it would be useful. "So... we're going to gather more energy, right?" she asked. "It... was honestly kind of fun, last time. Mostly. Except when you... started getting kind of... scary," she said gently. "And the dusk zone..."
Takashi Agera	Takashi nodded along with her. "Well, that's the thing. I'm going to make myself an investment. The hardest part is getting them to accept the first step. After that I can handle things. They'll get more out than they put in. We won't ask them to give us anything, we'll find it ourselves. Because what I'm really looking for is autonomy. Once they've gotten value it'll become more natural to call us in or share with us. And eventually, sitting in the center but beholden to nobody, I'll have a high degree of control over the most valuable resource - information. Or at least, that's the goal. Worst case I'll get some independence, fail, and be folded back into LifeScience." he says, shrugging. But there was a moment there, a moment when he talked about controlling information, where his eyes almost sparkled, like her father's, like he was about to break out into the mad laughter - though he did not. "Did you think I was out of control?" Takashi asked, tilting his head at Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan, if you thought I was scary, imagine how the girl who was barely holding up against me felt. To have me threatening to crack through her shield - which I nearly had, before all of the interference. And do you know what fear does? Fear causes mistakes. It causes a lack of ability to resist. It causes fight or flight to become freeze. It overtakes other emotions. Remember how magic is emotionally driven? Fear kicks the emotions you want out and replaces them. It corrupts your ability to control your magic, to fight back." "The intent was to make her afraid, to look scary to her. Someone who won't stop, who seems out of control - well, is scary looking. But I ''was'' in control the ''entire time''." Takashi says with a smile. As to whether this is the truth - well, it's what he believes in this moment. Factually, though... is another matter. "Hotaru-chan, there wasn't a moment of that when I was as out of control as I appeared to be. That's why when the youma was defeated and I was pushed back I was able to come to your aid and leave with you - rather than continue what looked like a rampage. Though I am sorry we had to back out through the Dusk Zone - that strange space they pulled us into made me worry about successfully using a Door, but my connection to the Zone was normal."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded. That, at least, made sense. Considering his comment the other day on crabs in a bucket, pulling each other down. Now it was more like... slowly boil them. Get a small, tiny bit to start, then help them adapt. Eventually, he becomes necessary. Needed. It wasn't a bad idea at all... And he might just be smart enough to pull it off. "Oh..." she whispered, staring at him. "You really were in control? You're... a lot better at faking being scary than I am," she said. "I... I understand. You're right. I... I was struggling, then. I thought... I thought you'd started to snap, or worse. That you were so focused, that you might really, truly hurt them. Not... the little hurting. But the really, really bad hurting. The... kind of hurting... I do to people," she mumbled gently. She smiled, though. And seemed to be placated. If he truly was in control, there was absolutely nothing for her to worry about. She smiled up at him. "I just... I have so few people I can count on. I want you to always be one, Takashi-senpai."
Takashi Agera	Takashi nodded. And to him, he was. He was in control. In control of being out of control, but... he told himself he ''let'' that rage flow through him, and that he turned it off when it was no longer needed, that Yellow Pearl Voice's song had nothing to do with it. But he believed it, so he was able to say it honestly. "Fear is a weapon like any other. It's kind of a form of presence. It's better to wield it yourself than be controlled by it. It's why we tend towards suits over skirts, it's why I wear the face of shadows. They can't recognize me anymore than they can recognize you without it, but being attacked by the faceless is scary." he explains. "Anyways, I'm sorry that I scared you. Wasn't the intent. Just to scare them, scare her." He said as he reached over and patted Hotaru on the head softly. "Anyways... what we need to do is get into a position to make all of this come true. I want you to depend on me, and I'm also depending on you. That's why I shared so much of this with you. Not just the what, but the why. It's also very important that we don't delay given the... Stupid Plan." he says, referencing all the way back to the start. "Doesn't matter how good my idea is if they break everything first. So we need to get into position to stop them. The good news is, Stupid Plan is ambitious - to the point where we have some time. But not forever."
Hotaru Tomoe	Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "Okay. Right. So... I guess we need to start working on gathering things. I'll see if I can grab some magical... things to bring you," she said happily. Then blinked a few times. "Maybe... maybe I can even..." She considered a thing. ... She... liked some of the girls. She thought some of the magical girls were amazing. Cute. Sweet. Nice. And... and they though Firefly was cool. Was cute. Was adorable. Was it possible she could use that? She could... get them to help her with things? Stuff she could use to help Takashi? Or was it all just a desire to be closer to them? Either or, really. Just like he lied to himself about some of his wants... So she did to herself. So long as everyone was lying, though, surely it would all turn out okay in the end, right? Because lying always made things better. Wait. No. That other thing. Eh. It'd be fine. Probably. "I'll see what I can get you. Maybe I can even give you leads that Kaolinite is considering. I've heard them mention... talismans and pure heart crystals before, but I'm not sure what those are. But... I'll try and see what I can find," she said before turning to get ready to lie... but then paused and glanced back. "... Takashi-senpai? Thanks... for being someone I can trust," she said before walking away, leaving him behind.