Scene #8580: In Which Adachi Gloats At Teenagers

Owner	Pose
Stanley Padgett	Welcome to Matsudo, Tokyo. Technically, welcome to the Summer Skies Family Restaurant in Matsudo, Tokyo. A nice, neutral place near where Stanley and Charlotte had all bailed out to after, you know, Lampport got fucked up. A perfect place to meet up with someone who was.... teeeeeeeeechnically an ally, but also still Tohru Adachi. That is to say it's not that Stanley doesn't trust Adachi. He sort of has to at this point, but trust is easier when you're somewhere with other people around, and not your refugee hidey-hole. The JR line rumbles past over the top of the store, and Stanley sits, poking at his okonomiyaki. "...I'm just glad you actually said yes to this, Mr. Adachi. We've been at this over a year and we're still sort of in the dark as to what we should be doing." He takes a bit, and hrms. "...Not that Lampport and... whereever your thing happened are the same thing."
Charlotte Newman	'Should' does a lot of heavy lifting when one considers the phrase 'Charlotte should trust her fellow Watch member Tohru Adachi'. The way she was introduced to the man, via Bercilak, didn't do his reputation any favors. Not, she supposes, that Adachi cares much about such things in the first place. Which is why the girl is present here but only nursing some fruit-flavored soda drink from a garishly decorated aluminum can. This one is red, sporting a cartoony crab in samurai armor. "Shoot, has it really been that long?" Charlotte's eyes glance upward in thought, mulling it over. Of course she knew. 'Meeting Stanley' is basically the only landmark she has in time for estimating her age. "Time got away from us for a while, especially over the summer with everything... um, ordinary we had to take care of, huh?" Glancing down at her drink, she swirls the contents of the can for a moment, "From what you told us, mister Adachi, you've got a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Thank you for meeting with us."
Tohru Adachi	Adachi hates dealing with children. Young, teenagers, eighteen-year-olds. It doesn't matter, anyone who hasn't had to truly deal with the hardships of adulthood are the bane of his existence. So why is he here? Good question! Next question! In all honesty, though, it's boredom. The Watch is currently imploding, and while he loves to stir shit, there's nothing hilarious or useful for him to latch onto there. So these kids who are literally who's to him will have to do... "Yeah, yeah! Don't mention it!" He seems to be only half listening to the kids as he leans back in his seat, one eye glued to his flip phone as he taps away at something. "So, like, what are you expecting to learn here? Hard to believe that you don't have most of the ropes down after a year, buuuuut..." Adachi takes his attention off his phone to eye Stanley and Charlotte before sighing and shrugging. "Well, I guess you can't help being dealt a shitty hand. That's just life." The Ex-cop does not elaborate, instead, he just returns to his phone as he leaves his previous question open.
Stanley Padgett	"Honestly, just picking the brain of someone who has experience with the Shadow World is enough, but..." Stanley puts down his chopsticks, and pulls out his own phone. And pulls up... notes. Wait what? Okay. "We know that NovaTech has some sort of.... technology that can make Wishes. Or make them happen to specific people. And we met the man who programmed the game, the Reversal, that is connected to that somehow. He said there were incidents in Japan involving 'extra-natural phenomena' and that the outfit that hired him to do work had collected information and technology from those incidents and moved to America." He looks at Adachi. "Did anything like that happen with you? I mean the Wishes, or is that a new thing for the Shadow World?"
Charlotte Newman	"To confess, we've been playing it by ear this whole time," Charlotte states with her eyes closed, "This didn't exactly come with instructions or anything." Stanley pulls up notes on the situation in Lampport, drawing Charlotte's glance and, at a few points, an agreeing nod. She glances down for a moment, then sets her drink down to open her purse. Fishing out her phone, she thumbs at the screen, "I was wondering just now if we could access the shadow world in this area. If we're outside of the region that's being affected, it might be safe, and we could show you what ours is like. If that would-- help, or be interesting, I guess." What's the worst a weird sketchy ex-cop could do?
Tohru Adachi	"Most of the kids who get stuck with this shit aren't seasoned vets, but I understand ya kinda need an excuse to not go insane. Anywhoooo, I shook hands with a Goddess at a gas station and got the ability to shove people into the world inside the TV, so we're not really as comparable as you think." Adachi taps away more at his phone. If he's texting someone, he's in a really heated conversation, given how long he's been at it. "Would have been really great if we got wishes, but instead we just got a shitty test on what 'humanity really wants'. Imagine that, placing the fate of the world on a discontented serial killer, a guy with no spine who cheated on his wife, and some city kid unfortunate enough to get stuck in the boonies. Anyway, if that gives you something to work with, cool, if not, I ain't got much else. Your problems are your problems, my problems are mine. The funny thing about the place you wanna know about is that it's never the same. " Figures, they just want help with their own Shadow World situation. Unfortunately for them, even if they were in the same world, it wouldn't help. The collective human unconscious is always changing to reflect the current state of civilization, and all the discontent and anger that it generally brings with it. It's a miracle he can still use it for consistent travel, honestly, given how much it tends to change. "Also it's definitely accessible for me, but I'm not really interested in the Shadow World. Can't really glean anything from looking at it, and honestly, it's pretty dull. I'd say I'm much more interested in putting OTHER people in there, but I've already done that and promised to stop." The detective makes a shooing motion at the thought of getting up from his seat. It's partially from laziness, but really, the Shadow World is boring. Sure, it's not the same, as he said, but even if it's constantly changing, it's always the same thing underneath. Also repeat performances suck.
Stanley Padgett	"The funny thing about the place you wanna know about is that it's never the same." Stanley narrows his eyes a bit at all of that, scrolls down a bit on his phone, then back up... He makes a face, and then looks at Charlotte. Some sort of... glance between the partners, then Stanley's face lights up. "Alright, Rosenkranz. Or Guildenstern. Whichever. I'll answer your question. The one you sorta asked me. No, I wasn't handed my powers. I had them scared into me in my first encounter with a Tyrant." Stanley takes a bite of dinner, and then smiles. Oh no, is he trying to make friends with Adachi????
Charlotte Newman	The idea is rejected. Charlotte frowns a bit at the screen of her phone, but obligingly tucks the device away again, "Alright. Thank you for that; I hadn't realized just how ubiquitous these shadow worlds really are." Why does that feel like something she already should have known? A thought she dismisses-- for later, at least. She shifts subjects when Stanley shares how he awakened Mercutio. "I fell into the shadow world seemingly at random, was attacked by shadows, and guided into awakening Galatea by a friendly-seeming shadow to defend myself." Eyes closing, she shrugs slightly, "He said she was always a part of me... Everyone else I know had to work so hard for it, I don't know why my experience was so different." The experiences John and Isaac and Stanley described, the painful awakening Caelan withstood, fighting so hard to help Chastity face her own shadow... Recalling each in turn puts a pensive look on Charlotte's face, chewing on her lip in thought. "So yours was the result of a goddess' whims... I think you mentioned that, in that way, we're similar?" Lifting her gaze, she rests red eyes on Adachi directly, "The name you used was... Magatsu Izanagi, right?"
Tohru Adachi	"Man. Kids sure have it easy these days. If you weren't born with it or given a hand out by a God, you had to actually do some sort of self discovery thing where you're basically close to killing yourself." Adachi once again doesn't elaborate, instead just complaining and wasting air. He finally closes his phone shut and places it down on the table as he just fidgets with his tie in boredom, his eyes just glancing around the restaurant. "Yeah, we're totally the same except for the part where we're different! I think you were under the impression I was told anything upfront! Cuz the funny thing is that we weren't! But anyway, yeah, it's Magatsu-Izanagi. Why, it mean something to you? Actually, you know what? It doesn't matter if it means anything to you, I think I figured out the problem here, and I'm just gonna lay it out as I'm seeing it" Exhaling, Adachi stands up, patting down his jacket as he stares directly at the two, his usual goofy grin lightning slightly into an unknown expression. "You're too focused on the corporation fucking around with the Shadow World and not the Shadow World itself. Yeah, sure, your dumb, dime-a-dozen evil corp is abusing something, but if you just break whatever is in the place they're exploiting, they don't have anything left. Treat the symptoms and not the disease, as it were... Or was that the other way around??? Well, you get it."
Stanley Padgett	MISSION FAILED, STANLEY, MAYBE NEXT TIME The Fool frowns a bit, and sighs. "...Stop chasing the Tyrants? But that's what we have been..." ...told to do, Stanley lets die on his lips. His brow furrows when he considers who it has been that's been sending them this information... He pushes around his dinner and considers. "...Delilah, the lady in the Velvet Room... She only basically talks to us when we actually go and see her, and when she sends us text messages. We only see the old guy on very rare occasions. And she was sorta... disappointed when she met me the first time. 'Just a Fool, not a Wild Card'." More shifting, and something uncomfortable starts to settle in. "...Igor says he can't say anything about our 'Unjust Game', but that he can tip the scales back in our direction." Stanley is talking into the middle space now, at a point vaguely between his dinner companions. The phone comes out again, and he starts texting, the way that Adachi was a moment ago.
Charlotte Newman	"But anyway, yeah, it's Magatsu-Izanagi. Why, it mean something to you? Actually, you know what? It doesn't matter if it means anything to you." Charlotte leans back a bit in her seat, "Oh. No. Just-- I was paying attention, before. That's all." This sort of standoffish posture must not be something she's dealt with all that much. As one of the Popular Girls at Silver Springs, that tracks. She glances at Stanley when he trails off. Glancing down in thought, a hand lifts to her chin, "Attacking the symptoms and not the cause..." She doesn't even realize she helped correct Adachi's intended statement, "It's true, we've been so fixated on the Tyrants and Novatech..." Glancing aside at Stanley, "I thought mister Igor was referring to a fight against the corporation when he said that. Could it be that he meant something else?" Her gaze shifts to Adachi, "That's what you're implying, right? That we're missing the forest for the trees."
Tohru Adachi	"Velvet Room? Igor? Wild Card? Huuuuh. Dunno what those are, but yeah. You got it, forest for the sn-trees! Novatech is small-time, whatever is going on in the Shadow World is more important. So I dunno, grab some golf clubs and mall swords, jump in, and figure it out. I believe in you." Adachi just kind of tilts his head at confusion at some of the words thrown at him, but mentally pins them for later. But they got his point, he thinks. He doesn't care, honestly. He's done. He's said his piece, and whatever they do with it is out of his control. He shoves his fists into his pocket and begins walking away. He stops to give the two children a half-hearted wave goodbye with his back still turned, before taking one more step forward as he suddenly disappears in a cloud of dark smoke... Right in front of everyone. It's fine. They can just explain that he's a really talented wizard or something. NOT HIS PROBLEM.