View source for Cloudy Future (Takashi Agera)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2018/08/04
|Location=The Dusk Zone
|Cast of Characters=47
}}
Takashi sits in the wooden chair in the strange hut, deep in the Dusk Zone. The entity in front of him - humanoid, but distorted, leans forward a bit. Beneath the static-like rolling shadows, an old woman's eyes look at him. "Lost Child..." she begins - but doesn't elaborate more.

"It's unusual for you to call anyone to you." Takashi notes. "At least from what I've been able to gather. Special occasion? Lonely?" His tone isn't mocking harshly, but a sort of teasing mixed with confusion.

"You tread a dangerous path, Lost Child." she says, cryptically. There's no tea, today. No offerings. "You're going to stand against the power of the world itself." She paused.

"And your future is clouded. And the future of the Earth, the Dusk Zone. I've been trying to clear the fog. I've seen you succeed. I've seen you fail. I've seen the Earth die. I've seen you die." The Crone said.

This stopped any hint of sarcasm from Takashi for the time being. "So what... are you saying. That I need to abandon my course, turn my back on the sacrifices I made, others made to get here?" Takashi was clutching his hands. The Crone had been right on other occasions, before.

"No. That's only one possibility. What you need is... something to tilt the odds." The Crone held out her hand, and shadows came together, until a small little obsidian claw rested in her hand. "A little thing is sometimes all it takes. It might not be enough. It might be."

Takashi was wary, here. "What's the cost? I've never known you to give anything away for free." It wasn't cold... just honest.

"I've never called anyone to me before, either. I've allowed the others in need to seek me out. But the future, this destiny, your destiny, as the Lost Child of the Dusk Zone... it's too valuable. Take it. I can always call in a favor, so long as you surivive."

Takashi's wariness was on his face... but he reached out and took the little claw.

"Carry it with you, and may it be the push you need for destiny to follow the better path for us both." The old woman began to cough again. "You must go. I am weary now. These visions... that creation... has tired me."

And Takashi didn't even get a chance to leave on his own, as the hut forced him out the door - or retreated around him before falling apart into shadows. Takashi looked down at the claw and... thought. Could he trust the Crone? Would the Earth be destroyed? Would he be responsible? 

After all his hard work, so many nights in the lab, so many bandages on wounds and days in hospitals... ripping at his own soul to build... and then the future wasn't clear? His hands shook - and he had to leave the Dusk Zone. The creatures there would be called to those emotions, if they could feel them...