View source for 1605/The Way Things Ought to Be

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/06/13
|Location=Mitakihara/Uminari City - Infinity Drive
|Synopsis=Naru talks with Takashi about his breakup with Ami. Takashi is not all that accustomed to conversations that are just conversations. Naru is not particularly taken aback.
|Cast of Characters=47,127
|pretty=yes
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{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Summer is in full swing in Tokyo, and that means the fact that Takashi is walking around in a jacket afterschool makes him stand out even more than the white hair with purple highlights might otherwise. As he walks past the front door of the Midori-Ya Cafe, he stops for a moment to look inside, debating if he should stop in and get a drink.

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Summertime, and in the afterschool roaming about of people, there's the normal crowd who are heading in and out of the cafe, fueling up on caffeine and sugar to get them through homework, or a lot of social before the mad rush of homework.<br /><br />Naru is not in her usual stomping grounds, and the school uniform of not the local schools stands out almost as much as Takashi's jacket in the warmth of the afternoon sun. She's coming down the street, probably headed for the cafe, her school bag over her shoulder and blinks in surprise when she spots Takashi, lifting her hand to wave to him.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi almost misses her. And then it takes him a moment to recongize her. Not that Naru is forgetable in her own sense, just that he has things on his mind from a totally different world.<br /><br />But he does notice her - first out of the corner of his eye, then turning slowly to her. Social environment. One of Ami's friends. One he doesn't think hates him or torpedoed him. In his current state he doesn't know what to do - other than wave a bit himself, and walk over.<br /><br />"Osaka-san, am I correct?" he asks.

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"You've a good memory." Naru confirms with a little nod as he guesses correctly at her name, and therefore probably remembers who she might be. Seems likely at least. She comes nearer enough for better conversation and looks up at him.<br /><br />"Hi." She offers then with a hint of a smile. Friendly. Doesn't seem to be any hidden knives. "I. Er. Heard about you and Ami breaking up." She watches him, as if perhaps to see how he reacts to that simple statement.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi nods at the memory comment - but then he visibly recoils, visibly winces when she brings it up. It's the verbal equivilent of a suckerpunch.<br /><br />"Yes. She did." he says. Now his voice is colder, more harsh, and his actual personality retreats behind that wall.<br /><br />"And she said some other things, too. About us." Takashi says, leaning with a thud against the wall and looking down and away. "I'm not sure what else there is to say."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I don't know all the details." Naru comments, her voice quiet, almost apologetic for that suckerpunch of bringing it up quite so bluntly. She glances down, as his voice grows colder, more harsh.<br /><br />A moment of pause, held upon that challenging moment and then she looks up at him again, and there's nothing of more suckerpunching upon her expression. There's concern.<br /><br />"I.." Naru starts and then pauses and tries a slightly different tack upon that question. "How are you doing?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I'm... doing fine." he says, looking first to the left, then down and away. The look on his face tells the story that contradicts the words, the fact that he's doing anything but fine. But he can't admit that, of course.<br /><br />"I've got a lot of work I've been able to get done now, anyways. Lots of research, experiments, projects."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The arch of Naru's eyebrow says that she doesn't look to be buying that fine as fine. Possibly as FINE, but not fine. "Would you be more honestly not-fine somewhere less public?" She asks quietly, thoughtfully.<br /><br />"What are you working on?" The question is simple, honest and fairly innocent out of Naru. She hesitates a moment and then adds. "The chocolates were really interesting."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"...maybe." Takashi finds himself saying. And then he crosses his arms and doesn't say anything more for the moment. Why he's being honest with her, he's not sure, and he's still too out of himself to question it logically or properly.<br /><br />"Sorry, trade secrets." he says about what he's working on with a half-smile. "Non-disclosure agreements have a lot more force when backed up by actual demon lawyers."<br /><br />"...I'm sorry about the chocolates. Did they have any ill effects? They weren't for anyone else, and I kinda didn't super-factor in her sharing them."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"There's actually demons?" Naru asks with a blink and a soft hunh, accepting that little tidbit of trivia to add to the ever growing list, but the phrase is enough to make her giggle softly. "Lawyers are bad enough. I can't even begin to /imagine/ what demon lawyers would be like."<br /><br />Naru erms softly at the apology for the chocolates and she chews on her bottom lip a little before she comments. "They were pretty much amazing. They tasted ever so vaguely familiar, and I couldn't quite place why." She pauses a moment, and then there seems to be a moment of honesty meeting honesty, with equally questionable reasonings. "I sort of wanted to thank you for them. I mean, I guess a steady diet would be bad, but that .." She erms softly and then shrugs. "No need to apologize."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi kinda smiles too. "Well, not literal christian demons but some of em kinda look the part. Basically, I work for a place where 'you're fired' means literally 'we will light you on fire' which tends to make me obey workplace rules." Usually. Sometimes. When it's convinent or when he can't get away with breaking them.<br /><br />"Yeah, I... put a lot of work into them. The person who they were intended for is very special to me." Is. Not was, notably. "But I also know that she had a better tolerance for that kind of... energy. Because of less happy times. I hadn't really planned for anyone else to get them either. But I'm pretty sure they couldn't possibly be dangerous."<br /><br />"Still, thank you for the compliments. And yeah, I wouldn't go chowing down on them. For one thing, I can't guarantee your ability to hold them and be stable. For two, I think Ami'd get upset."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Not getting lit on fire is a pretty solid motivational tool." Naru laughs softly. "I mean, I bet we'd have WAY less goofing off in class if people were likely to get lit on fire. Might make graduation a little sparse though."<br /><br />Naru mmmms softly, crossing her arms in front of her. "I don't entirely know how my tolerance is, other than I tend to surprise people when I remember things about being there, even if its hazy, but I certainly remember. I didn't notice any ill effects or anything, quite the opposite. If that's weird, I dunno." She hunhs softly at the list and then adds. "For three, I dont expect to ever get any more of them. Which makes one and two pretty easy."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi smiles and nods - and then stops short about fire, before shaking it off. Thankfully, Naru's back to te other subject. "Yeah, I figure you probably have some tolerance if you're able to have all those girls as friends and figure things out without passing out sideways." he says.<br /><br />"I stabbed a youma last night and the lady was convinced I'd just saved her from a mugger. The mugger was a nine foot tall shadow gorilla." he says.

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"These days, I'd see the gorilla." Naru nods with a little half twist of a smile and then she considers him. "These days, I tend to see and notice a lot more neat things. And not quite so awesome neat things. Like things that wish to shove me in mirrors, or other less awesome moments."<br /><br />Naru takes a deep breath and then sighs softly. "Although I suppose, all in all, I have a whole lot fewer less awesome moments than the rest of you." She leans against the wall as well, watching people pass by. People who, by and large, have no clue. Just like she was for most of her life.<br /><br />"How do the chocolates affect you?" Naru asks, with a certain degree of curiosity, after those few moments of quiet.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Mmm." Takashi says. He might, in another circumstance, be one of those things. "It's a dangerous world and a lot of people don't even know how much danger they're in." he says, gesturing at the people in the Midori-Ya, the people walking by. "Wether knowing is a blessing or a curse, I don't know. I've always known, since I was born. I don't know what it's like to live in the normal world." he says.<br /><br />"Sometimes I think it might be easier if I was just a genius, rather than everything else. But someone sacrificed too much for me to ever throw this away. I just... I hope I don't have to sacrifice the happiness I found?" he says, then shakes his head. "Sorry, don't worry about that one."<br /><br />"...They don't do anything. I have to measure them to tell I've got the mix right. It's like asking what it means to add a few eyedrops into an ocean."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I've actually had to stop and think about if it's a blessing or a curse." Naru points out. "I've decided that all in all, pros and cons, I'd rather know than not. Even if I can't do much about knowing. Even with the whole sense of betrayal and a lot of feeling dumb and stupid stuff." She quirks her head at him. "What do you mean by someone sacrificing too much?"<br /><br />Naru considers that answer and then hunhs softly. "So for you.. just chocolate, and for everyone else.. chocolate plus."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I mean that..." he takes a breath, and decides to answer without really giving it away. "If you try to take away what makes me who I am - then I won't be anyone anymore. Or, to put it another way - if I changed the way she'd ask me to, she'd be burying me instead of dating me." he says, looking down and away.<br /><br />"I wish it didn't have to be that way, though. But even still, even though I love her..." here he vocally hitches, stops, starts again. "...she's asking so much." he says, but then goes back to the chocolate. "Something like chocolate plus, anyways. But I'm not making anymore. I made them special for her, and I don't think she wants them anymore, now." he says with a sigh.

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Isn't it sort of .. part of you?" Naru asks as she glances to him sidelong. "Like.. I don't know what she asked of you, but making guesses from your comments, I'm sure its even possible, is it?" She looks back over the people, who are walking the street, chatting and laughing. "I am sorry that it sucks so much right now. It has to be awful."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Right." he says, without going into details. "And she said some other things too, that... that hurt." he admits, maybe for the first time to anyone. Then he steps back. "But that's not important." he adds.<br /><br />"It's... not fun, no. But it reminded me what's important. I don't like the way this is going - so it's up to me to change it. And I -can- if I can only find the strength." he says, quietly. "Or at least I can try. I know I'm not happy like this. I don't know if she is either, really..."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I'm not necessarily advocating that you two get back together. That is between the pair of you, not me as a third party." Naru points out, diplomatically. "But I will say that feeling hurt by it, is pretty normal and important." She takes a slow breath. "How you deal with it, also important."<br /><br />Naru considers a moment. "Change it how?" She asks, as curious as ever.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi looks at Naru. "It's not normal for me to hurt like this about anything." he says, calmly. It's a sort of odd calm, the calm that comes from letting negative energy wash over you, wash out your feelings, protect you from your own emotions. "I don't like this feeling, and I don't like being miserable."<br /><br />Takashi holds out his hand. He'd probably be more wary of people around in some other point in his life. As it is, the nonmagical pedestrians keep walking. In his hands a little surge of black energy forms. At first dangerous looking, it then changes until it's two little shapes - a tiny shadow Takashi and a tiny shaodw Ami - and they begin to just dance on the palm of his hand. "Put things the way they ought to be, is all."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Is that because you've just always avoided it?" Naru asks on the notion of not having been hurt like this before. "Or has something changed that lets you feel sadness and disappointment?" She considers a moment. "Y'know.. no one /likes/ being miserable, but being miserable does have a purpose. Even if you just sit with it, accept it as miserable. It passes, and the next thing is sweeter for the last bit of miserable."<br /><br />Naru still is a nonmagical pedestrian, and yet she isn't as she watches the surge of black energy without flinching, or recoiling away from the tiny figures. She watches them dance a little while and then she looks up at him. "You know that she's her own person, right? She has as much say in relationships as you do."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi considers the question. "Maybe it's a little of both..." he says, on the subject of why he hasn't felt this way. Then he looks at Naru. "Misery is dangerous for someone like me. It leads to places and things that threaten me." Takashi doesn't elucidate on this point more.<br /><br />He squeezes his hand and both the dancers vanish in a puff of smoke. "Of course. I wasn't insinuating that she wasn't... it's just..." he says, leaning back against the wall. "I really think she was happy. Maybe I'm wrong about that, and about a lot of other things. Some people think I am. Some people think I'm not. But if all of that was fake, then I just don't know what real feelings are, and that would make me the monster people make me out to be. I don't think that's true, either." he says.<br /><br />"It'd be one thing if she said she didn't want to be with me. But that's not the thing I understood. Maybe I'm reading too far into one thing or another?" he says, leaning back and looking up at the sky. "I mean maybe I don't know anything about this sort of thing at all. It's not really my forte. Did she seem happy to you?"

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I am so not a good person to be giving relationship advice. I know /nothing/." Naru comments quietly. "I don't even have crushes, let alone fall for people." She considers his words, a lot said and unsaid both.<br /><br />"I dont' read Ami very well, but I think so too. I also know she's really struggling with the dark energy part." Naru comments thoughtfully. "I also only ever saw the two of you together, in public once. I don't know what you guys were line when you were alone together." She twists a little half smile. "I don't have a lot of examples of healthy couples to go on. I'm not sure Usagi and Mamoru are the best model."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi nods. He's not sure he's looking for advice. But he's been talking to people more and more. That must be some sort of side effect - he keeps disgorging things. At least he's kept his actual projects and plans secret!<br /><br />"She's struggling because other people who don't like me made her struggle." he says, fists clenching before he relaxes. "And... hmph. Who doesn't know Usagi and Chiba at this point?" he says, still unable to say Mamoru's name without letting hostility creep into his voice, even if he doesn't turn that hostility to action.<br /><br />"I suppose that's unfair of me, though, to lay so much on you." he says, shrugging. "I didn't have crushes or falls until... last year. I was too busy. Too much on my mind." he says, shrugging. "So maybe it'll catch up with you, too. Then again, maybe I'd have been better off devoting myself to my work."

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"I think you underestimate Ami's stubborn if you think she is just blindly going along with what others might tell her to think." Naru clearly isn't much for unempowered girls. "She'll make up her own mind, cause I can't imagine her doing anything differently. It's one of the things I admire about her."<br /><br />Naru flickers a little smile. "I did come talk to you, and I did ask you how you were doing. I wouldn't have if I didn't want to know, so it's alright. Even without personal experience, I don't mind listening." She gives a little shrug. "I figure either I'll finally meet someone and my brain will go 'ayep', or I won't. I'm odd in enough other ways, one more doesn't make much difference at this point."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi nods a bit. Privately, it's one of the things he admired about her too. He just feels like he got the raw end of the deal in the 'advice she listens to' department - but who wouldn't want to take advice from a Dark Energy Scientist, right?<br /><br />"Fair enough." he says, waving his hand. "Still, I'm glad to see that you're not suffering ill effects from the chocolate." he adds. "And hey, either you will or you won't. So don't think of it as odd. I mean, I've seen you draw. You're talented." Takashi says.

:'''{{#var:127|Naru Osaka| (127)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Speaking purely statistically, amongst my friends.. I'm seriously odd for being the normal and boring one." Naru points out with a smile. "And I'm okay with that odd, so I'm fairly alright wiht all the other odds as well.<br /><br />"Thank you. I enjoy drawing, so I do a lot of it, so I get better at it." Vicious circle, and one that Naru is alright with. "I should probably get going home. Would you be alright if I texted you in a few days to see how you are?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi shakes his head. "Don't freak out if you can't reach me. I might just be busy." he says, with an odd smile. Then as he walks away, he turns back and looks at her.<br /><br />"Treasure that oddness - the fact that you don't have to live full time in the world I do." he says, softly. "It makes things a lot easier. Even if you choose to look in through the window you have... don't be too eager to climb in."
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