Takashi really enjoyed few things in life more than stimulating intellectual conversation over pizza with a beautiful girl. The fact that this only happened with one specific girl notwithstanding, it's put him in a pretty good mood, even with the lack of orange as a Problem that takes up a lot of his faculties.
But now he actually had to show her to the lab - which has dampened his mood. Admittedly, only a little bit. Aside from the generic worries about her... differing moral and ethical codes... he's actually glad to be able to show someone all of his projects and work, someone who, finally, might truly understand without eyes spinning.
"I had a special temporary Door set up so I wouldn't have to do the whole 'lead you through the city blindfolded' thing." Takashi comments as they make their way to, of all things, a storage closet door in the back of a bookstore. Of course when he opens it, it doesn't lead to the storage closet - it leads to, via a clear-to-Ami Subspace Gate, the front room of UMBRA, the organization within Eclipse that Takashi-as-Riventon runs.
Or, as it might more accurately be called, Takashi's Big Science Lab. There's a youma receptionist who's calm and collected as she gestures them through, and there's a few of Takashi's guards making the rounds in the sprawling labs, with offices against the occasional wall. There's whiteboards everywhere, and most of them are scrawled with Takashi's writing and notations. Some of these scrawls seem more eccentric revalations than calm notations, too.
The guards aren't Eclipse's typical roboyouma - those have long sense been replaced by literal faceless goons - short feminine not-quite-youma with blank faces, wearing berets and fatigues, carrying large rifles with chambers that glow with black energy. They don't pay Takashi any mind other than to stay out of his way, but they do keep their eyes on his guest.
Takashi, of course, sees nothing strange about any of this.
To say the place is filled top-to-floor with advanced scientific equipment would be an understatement - it's quite possible the place competes with the Large Hardon Collider for the sheer quantity of cutting-edge scientific equipment in any one space, to say nothing of the moments of Mid-childan tech running one simulation or another.
When there is a problem to be solved, Ami finds it difficult to allow herself distraction from that problem. Pizza is one of the best ways to ensure she stays distracted, but even pizza and stimulating conversation can only keep her from the problem for so long. Eventually, most assuredly, she insisted that they get going.
It probably didn't help Takashi at all that Ami wasn't dressed in anything resembling her best date attire. Today she's gone for bluejeans and the shirt from a set of scrubs in her favourite sky blue. The three blues (jeans, hair, shirt) clash a little, but she is by far more concerned with functionality than fasion.
"It bothers me a little that you think I would not keep your secrets," Ami observes as she follows him into the back of the bookstore. "Given I've never given you any reason to believe I would do otherwise, and in fact I have told you that I would do so. But I suppose it's all you know: people abusing the knowledge they have to get the better of you. And you've done that to me. So perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised."
Despite her quiet disapproval, Ami follows him through into the facility and allows her eyes to wander. Impressed is not an emotion that comes easily to Ami's face, but there's no doubt that she's impressed, right now. "This place is ridiculous," Ami notes in a hushed tone after a pair of guards finally turn away from giving her the stink-eye. "How do you fund all of this?"
Takashi turns to her as they walk through the labs. "By the way, it's got nothing to do with you keeping my secrets." he says, turning to look at her. "It's got everything to do with keeping you from having a conflict of interest. I know that I'm enough trouble for you, as far as interactions with your friends and allies goes. As best I could, I wanted to reduce the number of situations where that might put you at odds with them. In that sense, I presumed it would be easier for you to tell them you don't know than to explain to them why you won't tell them what you did know."
He stops for a moment. "And to my knowledge, I've never abused any of the information you gave to me in order to get the better of you." He doesn't go into detail about that, but he does have to put it into the air, lodge a sort of conversationally formal protest.
"Well, generally speaking, I don't fund it. Eclipse does. But we're essentially a very speciifc form of R+D mixed with a museum and research lab. And any good R+D is an expenditure. I've already helped them get a few things together that should start to return on their investment."
He shrugs a bit, and stops in front of a little table, suspiciously cleaner than all the rest, with two chairs. And in the center sits a pale grey gem, set into a peice of equipment, which is distinctly strange and both magical and technological. Stacked up are books on color theory, infared energy, notebooks in a flowing script which is distinctly NOT Takashi's, and Takashi's own typewritten notes. "You know, sometimes people ask me what I do all day, and they never seem to take 'unravel the secrets of the universe' quite seriously enough." he adds, with a bit of a grin creeping in.
"My friends would not force me to make that decision," Ami replies with a shrug. "If I said I would not tell them, they would respect me. You aren't the first villain," she emphasizes the word just a little, as if air-quoting, "I've worked with, and I doubt you'll be the last."
But she does let the matter drop when the sight of that glowing gem shows up. She eyes it uncertainly, then reaches up to pinch her earings. The Mercury Visor drops into place over her eyes, and she begins analyzing the gem carefully.
"Honestly, you need better friends," Ami notes with some amusement as she approaches it. "When I told mine I was going to perform a resurrection, they didn't question it; they didn't tell me it was impossible. They just asked what they could do to help."
Takashi isn't sure where to begin with that. He's so not sure. This results in Ami getting stared at - or more accurately, stared through - as his brain tries to pick the right response. "I'm not some like... shoujo manga antagonist." he finally says, a bit defensively. He doesn't have much to say other than to huff at it - he wouldn't shun the label, it's just the way in which she's applying that label that gets him.
He takes a deep breath and sits down. "So. Orange is gone from the world." he says, trying to just tilt the conversation towards more productive avenues. "Color's not just a wavelength of light, though. It's a magical force, too. And that's what's gone off. I can still make the wavelength that used to be considered orange, it's just grey now."
"And the object that you're studying..." he begins, picking up a notebook and then putting it down on the table with a meticiulously diagramed notation of that same crystal "...is my third attempt at making one of the Prism Keepers' Chroma Crystals, which as far as I can tell, is part of the process of connecting the magical force to the electromagnetic energy."
"And look, my friend...s" the s clearly added on later "are quite supportive. We're just all realistic about what it means. Organization charts have one person at the top."
"They don't have to," Ami mumbles to herself as she leans in to study the crystal. "Ignoring the 'why' of you creating your own chroma crystals, I assume this one is attuned to Orange?" she asks curiously. "I also assume you have tried activating one before. What happened?"
Takashi does, indeed, follow suit and ignore the 'why' - it wouldn't help much cases at all - and just leans in. "Well, the first one didn't work at all. In fact, it blew up. The second one was while Orange was still around and I got what we'll call... eye-bleeding neon solar orange." And then gave it to a Nullheart. That part isn't necessary.
"This one should be an improvement, it should be more controlable. But instead it's a little too controlled in that it doesn't do a damn thing."
Ami smirks--clearly amused--and straightens up to regard Takashi. "Is that how you justify failures?" she teases, then glances back at the thing. "Can I see the second one? Eye-bleeding neon solar orange is better than greyscale; maybe I can help you figure out why this one isn't working."
Takashi looks at her, unsure how to respond again. This is happening to him with alarming regularity, he notes. Then he tilts his head. "It's only a failure if I give up. As long as I don't, then it's just bumps on a long road of inevitable success."
He turns away from her, shuffling through a notebook before Axion pings. "Fine." he says to the device, and it generates a hologram-like visual construct of the Nullheart Reiko's crystal. Even without orange working, it's somehow an energetic, bright grey, which is distinctly odd. "It didn't think I'd find it, and doesn't understand why I'd want to use a notebook." he explains, and then he gestures at the image. "It was destroyed too - external pressures - but I've got pretty much enough information here that it's almost like having it here."
Ami straightens up again to study the schematic put out by Axion, and grins at the explanation. "So far, I am noticing a trend where Axion and I agree on a lot of things, a lot of the time. Why would you want to bother with a notebook?"
Ami takes several moments to observe the hologram and all of its details, then looks towards Takashi again and asks, "Do you have the schematics for the new crystal? This third version? Especially with the changes hilighted between the one that worked and this new one."
"I like the feel of the work I've done in my hands, I guess." Takashi admits, a bit sheepishly. "Something tangible when I work in the fleeting world of energy. I picked up on it pretty early as a preference. But... I'll admit it's pretty objectively inferior."
A mental command causes Axion to generate the same sort of detailed schematics for the new crystal, and the one that couldn't hold together as well - a full series of improvement attempts now visible.
Ami falls silent as she studies the schematics, giving no indication of her thought process for several moments. Thoroughly, she looks between one and the next, comparing the changes, the improvements, the differences.
"I see what you're trying to do," says Ami eventually, faintly impressed. "You're on the right track, but I think the premise you're working under--especially the premise that you followed between your second and third prototypes--is flawed.
"The Chroma Crystals are, at their core, connected to the fundamental powers of creation," Ami explains, reaching up with her finger to poke at the diagram of the third crystal, "Every upgrade, you've increased the amount of control you're exerting over the power. You're brute forcing it; trying to bring the colour to heel. But that's not going to work. The more you force it, the less power it will have. Your second prototype had enough control to manifest the colour, but not enough to make the decisions it needed to adapt its output to the appropriate chromatic frequencies. They aren't stratic," Ami notes. "Magical interruptions are constant, and every little solar flare from the sun causes it to shift. That's why your second attempt was erratic, I think: it just couldn't adapt to changes in the envrionemtn. It's also why your third seems to not work: you've got plenty of power, but it hasn't got the ability to adapt to external influences. As a simple test, try putting it in a vacuum utterly devoid of light or radiation. In that environment, you'd probably get your orange chroma crystal to function perfectly."
Takashi nods, looking at, after all, the same schematics she is as she talks. After a while, he leans back, too. She's still explaining, and he's nodding quietly. He's not taking notes - but that's because he is thinking, and he's trusting Axion to record her words. Eventually, he entertwines his fingers and then leans forward, elbows on the lab table, considering.
"So if what you're saying is right, then it's not that they exist to control the output on thier own, but to direct it." Takashi muses. That's a very important difference, to him. "And whenever I prevent it from mutating and modulating on it's own, I'm choking it off, like going to far with a fire and depriving it of all the fuel?"
"Hmmm. An absolute vaccum. I suppose Dark Energy isn't something we want the same thing full of, so I'll have to actually prep a real one instead of an almost-one."
Ami nods her head as Takashi slowly follows her meaning. "Exactly, the fire analogy is a good one. Color energy is like a fire, but it's not a fire you want to put out. Instead, you want to direct it. So you have to set up the right breaks and clears to send it on the right path. But you can't just make it go where you want."
But then he starts into setting up a vacuum and she has to shake her head, "No, I didn't mean you should do that. I mean you can, but that's not going to be the results you want. It will only be able to channel energy within the confines of the vacuum. What you need to do is remove the limitations. The possessor and the device must be able to work in harmony to control the color wavelengths, rather than only the possessor trying to do so. It's like letting Axion do the calculations for your teleportation for you."
Takashi shakes his head again rapidly. "No, no. I got what you meant, but it seemed like a worthwhile experiment I could perhaps derive additional information from. Same general idea, but a different train of thought." he says, looking again at the schematics.
"So maybe something like a more open pathway, but also at the same time still directed." he muses aloud. "I mean, really these are very little like what I believe the action of the actual Keeper's crystals to be. They're all magic, relic sort of artifacts from who knows where." he continues, oblivious to the Keeper's origins.
"These just look similar, but there's a lot more tech in them. Trying to wrap the energy around the wavelength and merge it into what it was before the catastrophie hit us." he says, as the crystal slides apart, what was once a stable looking gem revealing itself to be countless stacked gemstone panels, each no more than the width of a human hair, etched and encoded differently.
Takashi turns his hand palm up, sticking out an index finger, and two small droplet-sized orbs of dark energy surge into existence, swirling around towards the slid-away panels and making small changes here or there even as Takashi directs them with a strange combination of precision and casual disregard. "My concern is, admittedly, one of letting it do too much work. Whatever's going on with the color right now I can only assume that it wants to be back in this world, much like a fire would seek to expand, only perhaps with a more intellectual sense than just the fire's consumption."
"Two different approaches can reach the same conclusion in different ways," Ami submits, leaning back to watch him work, allowing the visor to study the energy he is manipulating. "You're right, these aren't much like the crystals they use. Theirs channel emotional energy far more readily than yours does. Interestingly, I think the emotion associated with each colour is a part of their owners' psyche. Orange is the colour of bravery and optimism--traits which the Prism Keeper struggles with. Imagine what she could do with that crystal if she had Sailor Moon's outlook on life."
Takashi keeps toying with the various wafer-like shards of crystal as they talk. "Hmmm. That's a good point. Bravery, optimism - emotions to power." he muses, and the changes shift. Dark Energy isn't good at channeling positive emotions, but it's what Takashi has to work with, and it's not impossible - though it might be impossible to do without tainting it, explaining the way the Nullhearts take aspects of their originals and twist them. But Takashi is, if nothing else, an expert at making Dark Energy at least emulate things, come as close as possible.
"It's because I'm trying to make sure I don't channel the wrong emotions. Probably another case of flow versus force." he muses. "That... actually might be relevant on another project of mine, too... but that'll come later." He looks at her even as the small orbs continue to tweak the wafers that create the false crystal.
"So, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Blue is your favorite color, too?"
Watching Takashi work, Ami doesn't interrupt him. But oh how much data she is collecting right now; it's like a treasure trove of dark energy delight. Except without the potential for contamination later. "Energy wants to be free," Ami points out with amusement as he explains himself. "Guide it, don't force it."
The random personal question, though, comes at a surprise, and she blushes a little and looks aside. "Well, yes," she agrees quietly. "But I've never really met the Prism Keeper responsible for the colour."
Takashi smiles. "It's mine too. And believe it or not, that was true before I met you. The fact that you wear it so well is a bonus, though." he says, and - as Ami talks through with him - he does change the way the system works, aiming more for that guidance and less for control.
"Like the difference between changing a river's course and trying to guide it with a dam." he says, as much to himself as her, as the orbs continue their miniscule work - being guided by Takashi even as he continues to interact with Ami.
"Not that I'm not sure you couldn't wear even the most garish color combinations well, mind you." he says, his mind easily flipping back to the previous line of Ami-centric discussion.
"Careful," Ami says, leaning forward just a little, then forcibly pulling her hand back. Dark energy may be interesting to study, but she really ought to know better than to even consider touching it, magically or physically. Nevertheless, she's worried that what he's doing is going to cause a reaction, so she has to say something.
Of course, he probably didn't need the warning in the first place; Takashi's been working with the stuff longer than Ami has known magic existed. Nevertheless, watching such precision work happening at this sort of speed makes her both dizzy and a little nervous. Trust, it seems, is slow to form in both directions.
"Uh ... yeah, kinda like a dam, only more like a channel. It's still flowing to the ocean, you're just keeping it from spilling into the nice neighborhoods you just built."
But then he completely sidetracks back to what she's wearing, and Ami has to stop and look down at her outfit in confusion. "What?" she asks, then realizes he didn't mean she was wearing something garish. She blushes a little, suppresses the reaction, then says, "Uh. Thanks. I think."
And at this, Takashi grins - and then turns quickly back to intently focus on something in the wafers. Did he just lose control for a minute due to her reaction, or was it just a moment where precision is needed? He's not going to say, instead, looking up at her after a moment. "It's a compliment, so thanks is correct, yes." he teases. "My point being you could make anything look good."
Eventually, the two little magical soldering orbs vanish, and the wafers start to slide back into place, each magically guided into the necessary spots, forming back into the gem-shape that they were in when Ami walked in, and then shimmering as it becomes a completed object once again - the magic finalizing them into a real shape, without each guiding channeled wafer any different than the rest of the gem.
"Keeping things from spilling out is why I try to control them so directly." he says, looking at it. "Without direction, comes chaos. Chaos creates disorder, and disorder is the thing that really lashes out and hurts people." Takashi's talking to them gem, but the words might give more understanding to his mindset to the other person in the room."
"But I suppose with too much order, the urge to be free is too strong." He leans back. "Do you want to give it a look before I try to pull some color through it?"
"Is it safe?" Ami asks when offered the chance to inspect the gem. But of course that's a dumb question, and without waiting for an answer, she pushes off her leaning perch and moves closer to inspect his handiwork carefully.
It's several long moments before she says anything else. Eventually, she straightens and says, "Well it's better. But I don't promise this is going to work. Still, you should get something out of it."
Takashi looks at her. "Well, it's safe-ish." he offers unhelpfully. "I mean, the original Chroma Crystal harnesses an immense amount of power, and so does this. But it's reasonably safe given the sort of thing we're working with. I wouldn't have you in here if I thought it had a real chance for injury or otherwise."
"Even if it doesn't work, if I get information out of it, it'll get us a step closer to getting orange back into the world." Takashi also doesn't seem particularly concerned, in any way, about the sort of power he's toying with. But then again, that's Takashi.
He sits the gem into the holster, and wires are running from it. Some might be input, others might just be used to register the data. Axion gives the command, so the strange feeling of latent energy - which is possibly Dark Energy - in the air begins and the gem begins to fill. Most of the color it takes on is still black, with purple crackles of energy inside it.
But in the center, perhaps only a small speck, a pinprick - is bright, bright orange.
Ami steps out of the way when Takashi moves to take the gem again. She wasn't quite done studying, but it's his lab and she only has the barest idea of the things he's working with, right now. Theories: yes. Actual practical knowledge? Definitely no.
When he starts to power up the device, she takes a step back and considers bringing up a barrier to hide behind. But she doesn't.
Instead, she watches in awe as power becomes colour, and that colour is orange.
"Well," she murmurs quietly after a moment, "that's promising."
It's just a tiny bit of color, and it seems to be winking in and out of existence. Takashi peers in. "I'd almost gotten used to the grey everywhere." He smiles, and then leans back and away from it. The equipment is running, pulling data and information from the tiny speck of energy tugged back into their reality.
But as for Takashi? It's time for something just as important - feeling successful. "It's more than promising." Takashi says with a grin. "I mean, this is a big deal - I rewrote the rules of this energy, with your help. Shouldn't be working, right? But it is. Faint and all, but it is."
"This is the sort of thing we can do when we work together, Ami." he says, pointing at it. "Things other people call impossible, things they don't even dare to dream. And we're doing it in what. An hour? The secrets of the universe don't have a damn thing on us."
Ami reaches up to remove her visor. It's one thing to recognize that colour for what it is; it's another to experience it with your own eyes. She can keep recording the data without actively sifting through it.
Takashi's words earn a small blush of discomfort from Ami. "You mostly already had the research done," she points out gently. "All I did was help you take a step back and reconsider your premises. And it's still really dangerous," she notes. "This is just the barest hint of power, and I'm already noting some fluctuations. If you try to put more power in, it might blow up in our face. I think we should shut it down, for now; study the results we've got and come back after we've made sure it's safe."
Takashi looks at her. "There's really no need to be shy about it. You helped. A lot. Because other people aren't smart enough to follow along with the things I do or say. You're smart enough to improve on my methods and show me new ways of looking at things." he says, watching it for a little bit before, with an obvious tinge of regret, begining the process of turning it down.
It doesn't happen all at once, but the pinprick of orange dies off long before the black and crackling energy within the gem does. Eventually, though, it's an opaque gem again, like faded costume jewlery.
And he walks around to her side of the table. "It's okay for you to reach out and accept your own greatness. You don't have to turn it aside and blush whenever someone points it out, whenever someone I point out that I can see how great you are."
Takashi is not one for humility, and that has, so far, extended to the people he cares about. A pride like his, so much so that to him it's only natural that everyone who comes in contact with him must be better than everyone who he chooses not to interact with - so how much more so must it be for the girl he's so taken with? "You're a one of a kind genius and a one of a kind beauty." he says, as firmly as he might be stating a settled scientific theory. Perhaps, more so.
It's the darkness talking, she tells herself. That arrogance; that pride. That's just the darkness talking. But it's so very compelling, and it does draw another blush out of her. "Yes, well," she says, "if it's all the same to you, I think I'll continue being uncomfortable with hearing it from a ..." she trails off, as if uncertain what word to use. 'Peer' is the right word, but that seems a little cold and distant. It also lumps him in with Usagi, Naru, and others who don't have the same level of understanding as he does.
So she doesn't say anything. Instead, she reaches up to activate the visor again and inspect the lingering traces of energy as the device finishes its shutdown cycle. Once the last of it is gone, Ami sidetracks the conversation to note, "There's a lot of waste energy. More than a thousand percent. We can't release this on the world until we've reduced that to a safe margin."
Takashi leans over a bit. Though he's equally interested in her commentary and findings as this discussion. "a... what?" he asks, half amused, half curious. And then she switches tracks, and for the moment, he comes along with her.
"Yes, I don't think it's something I can continue pouring energy to at quite this rate." he muses, looking at the little object. "Efficency is lacking in this design. But I think the information I pulled from the test can help me develop it into a new direction."
"Still, it's nice in a way, reminding myself I didn't go crazy and there really used to be a color orange. To think magic could alter the world so fundamentally this way... it's... curious." Takashi says, using the word that means he's dangerously interested in something.
Ami doesn't respond to the amused curiosity about the word she was going to use. If she felt self-conscious about using it before, now she feels doubly so. So instead she focuses on the science. "You can't," she agrees of the energy. "It needs to be refined. Dramatically."
She sighs nad leans back, "I'm tired. I'm going to take this data back home and analyze it in depth there tomorrow. Let's reconvene in a few days and see if we can't refine it by then?"
Takashi smiles. "That sounds good. I'm interested to know the sort of things you come up with on your own with all of this information." he says, nodding, and smiling perhaps a bit too wide, something obviously being planned. "You can see if there's new angles we haven't been able to solve, and I'll try to refine what we've already got."
He nods, and looks to guide her out of the lab.
"You know, you still owe me a field trip."
Ami grimaces a little at the reminder. "I know," she says, "and I want to do it sooner than later. This actually will be a big help," she notes, motinoing towards the gem. "I gained a lot of valuable data which I can use to help prepare for that trip."
Takashi makes a face. "You know I've done a lot of work to make sure you're safe, right? I'm not just going to expect you to walk in there. I've really gone to a lot of trouble and done a lot of testing."
"I guess it can't hurt for you to bring your own insights, but really, you're one-hundred-percent safe."
Ami blinks at Takashi confusedly. "Who said anything about trust or safety?" she asks him. "I was talking about undestanding what I'm seeing. The whole point is for me to gain perspective on your view of the world. I couldn't do that without baselines to compare to. I know that you will keep me safe. If you fail to do so, Sailor Moon and the others will completely unmake you."
Takashi nods. "My apologies, I misunderstood what you meant. Absolutely vital that you have the necessary background."
"Well, I don't think there's any sort of safe response I can give to that." he says, obviously tamping down his pride to say something like 'they're welcome to try' - but on the bright side, this is Takashi tamping down his pride!
Ami barely contains her smile of amusement--she set him up for that, and she's simultaneously amused and pleased at his reaction. At least he managed it! "There isn't," she agrees quietly, "but I'm very proud of you for realizing that. Can I teleport myself home from here, or do you need to escort me out?"
Takashi holds out his hand in a only-slightly overdramatic way. "While I'm sure you could just teleport out of here, I don't want anything to interfere - or worse, someone to trace the signal. And I don't want to be so ungentlemanly as to not walk a lady to the door."
Ami considers Takashi's outstretched hand, then sighs and reaches to gently wrap her fingers around his. "Well, I'm not sure where you're going to find a lady, but I guess I'll take advantage of the gentlemanliness nonetheless."
Takashi entwines his fingers in hers, then walks her out of the lab and out through the door, which now leads out to a rooftop on one of the medium-height skyscrapers in Mitakihara. "There you go again, selling yourself short." he says, shaking his head, but it's a soft, almost teasing look. He hasn't let go of her hand yet.
"I tell you what. I'll try to think a smidgeon less highly of myself if you try to accept that you might actually be as amazing as I say."
Ami considers that idea for a moment, then shrugs, "I guess we'll find out if you're right in November." And with that cryptic response, she says, "Thank you for this evening. Please be careful with that thing. The last thing we want is to make matters worse for the world right now. I'll call you in a few days to arrange a time to discuss our findings."
Then she raises her hand, anda little bead of subspace forms there. "Hyperspatial Tunnel: Generate," she whispers, and the bead expands outwards into a gateway. "Good night," she says.