Scene #2484: The Cat Came Back

Owner	Pose
Catra	Tokyo. Obsidian Tower. The early hours of the morning when most people and basically all teenagers are asleep, and nobody is at work -- except for night security, of course, but they're only so good at their job. Getting past them was child's play. Making it all the way from the ground floor to where Glimmer's room is located, however, has not been easy; largely because the elevator poses far too many risks, so the other option has been taking the stairs, and making use of all the service corridors and ladders as much as possible to ''avoid the stairs''. By the time Catra arrives on the floor she's looking for she's already tired, and spends a moment crouched in the cramp, largely unused space, double-checking for the eighth time that her phone is not merely silence, but turned off, and that she left the black card behind in a hiding spot elsewhere, just in case the chip could be tracked inside the building (maybe that's paranoid but you never know, you're not paranoid if they're actually after you, right?). Finally, once she's confident in her muscles once again, she manifests Powersend and rests the blade on her shoulder before giving the door hinges a quick shot of WD-40, just to be safe, before pulling it open and peeking carefully into the corridor, to see if it's unoccupied. Which, it seems to be... so far. Good. Just a very short distance to Glimmer's room and maybe she can see if the pink-haired cricket is alright.
Takashi Agera	The problem for Catra is simple - you can do everything right, from a mundane-sneaking-around perspective, and even do a lot of things right from the perspective of magic, but it only takes one problem in a world of magic to turn everything upside down. And in this case, the problem is that Riventon had recently liberated a magic item from Gaito, and that magic item was a scrying orb, and while its success had been spotty at best, it -had- given him the information he needed to not only know Catra was coming, but the where and the how and the when. And Riventon, being him, decided to use this information in one of the more obnoxious ways possible. Floating off the ground let him be even sneakier than a cat's paws, and warping the light helped him hide better, and now... he was moving up behind Catra to tap her on the shoulder. Whether or not that was particularly successful, due to one reason or another, in whatever form her first awareness of him took, his words were the same. "Hey Catra - you know you're ''incredibly'' late for your expected office hours."
Catra	Catra's first response to the sound behind her, rather than to process it and identify who it is and determine that she should probably react in a conversational manner, is to do hat startled cast usually do, and panic. There's a flash of steel as the feline whirls around, slashing with the sword -- and missing Riventon, but cutting right the way throught the wall beside her and leaving a deep gouge all the way to the room on the other side. She bounces back and slips easily into Koncho-no-Kamae, with her feet set and the blade held horisontally, sharp side up, just above her eyes level. Eyes that flash brilliantly in their mismatched colors, as the sword takes on a wreath of flame around the blade. Only now does Catra get around to processing that the person she's facing is, in fact, her former boss. Or current boss. Or maybe sort of boss. It's sort of hard to tell at the moment. And it takes a moment, but it dawns on her that she's pointing a sword in his direction right at this moment; so she slowly lowers it, and allows the flames to extinguish. "So dock my pay," she grumbles. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that. ...Or at least not ''me''."
Takashi Agera	Riventon's eyes narrow as he dodges the sword and looks down it until Catra lowers it. Not even the first time this month he's been staring down a sword from uncomfortably close. He's very chill about it. As Riventon, it's a whole other deal, especially with his recent upgrades. A much less threatening deal. "If we want to talk about things people shouldn't do... I think you're far ahead of me on that front." Riventon says. "Why are you even here? With all of Obsidian knowing what you did they've been twisting mine and Glimmer's arms over you, but there's really only one way this business ends." he says, narrowing his eyes. "They'd just shift from pretending they'll look the other way since they don't know where you are to going after you directly. And no matter how high you consider yourself, this isn't a place you want to be with everyone gunning for you."
Catra	Catra returns her sword to resting on her shoulder, though she keeps the blade manifested for now. Her ears swivel, and she has a quick glance over her shoulder, just in case there's anyone else in the corridor that she needs to be aware of -- and right now it seems like there isn't. "Yeah well I had to do it," she hisses. "And come on, you know as well as I do that what's-her-name was an underpowered liability and Mistress 9 was going to kill her sooner or later anyway, I just helped fast-forward through an otherwise crappy movie." She sucks in a breath, and lets it out in a rush. "I didn't plan on getting caught. ...I just came to check on Glimmer. She disappeared after the fight at her concert and that's definitely not like her, and then she sent me pictures of a tiny Angells and some whatever cat-thing." Catra backs up, and leans against the wall, so she can better see both Riventon and the hall behind her. "Just... wanted to get to her room, make sure she wasn't dead or sick or insane, and then sneak right back out."
Takashi Agera	"Yeah, about the whole getting caught thing. You should know I have come into the possession of a tool that'll let me find you." he notes. "But there's really not anyone who knows that, yet." he says. "Glimmer's been dealing with some other member of Obsidian lately." Riventon says, after a pause. "I don't like it, but apparently he was able to help her get around the block preventing her from doing what she came here to do." he says, without explaining. "I'm worried about both of you, screwing around in a world you don't understand and getting into trouble. Especially given what happened to Gaito. You're very lucky I'm the only one who knows you're here. Or who knows that I know you're here." he adds. "I don't disagree with your take on the person you got rid of, but you still did it without approval and doing things without approval is what gets people into trouble." he says. "You haven't been around, have you even heard what happened to Gaito?" he asks.
Catra	"Do the people who've lived their entire lives here really understand this world any better than Glimmer and I?" Catra asks, her voice deadpan. "And you can track me, that's fantastic except not really. ...But whatever. I guess there's nothing I can do about it. At least it's you and not..." Not Joker. But she trails off before saying it. "It was a hat of the moment thing. Maybe I should have just waited for things to play out but I didn't. I couldn't. And it's not like I could make a few calls, submit the paperwork and wait ten business days to get approval, it was a ''fight'' and I needed to just do whatever I was gonna do." She sighs and rubs her forehead. "I've got something new as well, but I'm gonna bet you know about that already, if for no other reason than Glimmer can't keep her mouth shut. Even when she's eating." The feline glances over her shoulder once more; and her ears remain a swivel, tracking to every sound, every creak that a building makes at night time. I just know Gaito's dead. Didn't really know him before. I know the mermaids are happy about it. That's about all I know."
Takashi Agera	"Yeah, funny think about him being dead." Riventon says, bemused. "The mermaids didn't kill him. He got away after that, lurked his castle to the bay. But the thing is, he also didn't file his paperwork to go all off the handle and flood part of the coast, and threaten everything. Obsidian took that seriously, too. Especially after you ran off, and Sunbreaker before that. You know? It was being an epidemic." "So they made it someone's problem. They sent that someone to find where Gaito had hidden the castle, and deal with it." He says. "And that's the story of how I got the magic pearl that lets me locate the missing cat. And why a Panthalassan staff's focusing crystal is in my device now." he says. "So if you think it's a joke or a game, I'm standing in front of you to tell you it isn't. I told Glimmer, outright, that I think we should come up with a plan to fake your death because otherwise I'll be ending up having to put you in the same place Gaito's at now."
Catra	Catra's eyes narrow. "Don't make the mistake of thinking it'll be that easy," she replies, ears flattening and her tail poofing up. "I beat Shadow Weaver, probably the most powerful sorceress on Etheria -- don't let Glimmer tell you different -- and I did that with my bare hands before I had any magic at all." Just the same, the feline looks over her shoulder again, and makes a move towards the door she came in through. "Faking it might buy me some time I guess. It's not like they wouldn't figure out it was fake eventually, there isn't exactly a healthy population of beast-kin hanging around Japan, is there? The second someone's like 'Wow, that girl's cat cosplay is killer' too close to an Obsidian agent they'd figure it out. But whatever. I ''can'' take care of myself, it's not the first time I've been exiled. What's the word here? Ronin?" Catra shakes her head, "Whatever, look, I just came to check on Glimmer, if you tell me she's okay I'll get outta here."
Takashi Agera	"Gaito was an emperor who destroyed multiple underwater mermaid kingdoms and I dealt with him effortlessly." Riventon warns. Though he 'dealt with him' without fighting him, that only means he can be all the more forceful with this 'truth' when he says it. "Underwater, in his own environment. I think it'd be far easier than you're comfortable with. But it's better than we don't have to find out which of us underestimating the other, don't you think?" He asks with a smile. "I've never had anything against you and while this situation has brought me a lot of trouble, I would prefer to avoid hostilities if that's possible. Even just buying some time would do you good - that's a lot of what it took for them to lay off Hinoiri, after all - and they started out by sending you to kill her, or... well... someone did." he notes with all of that annoyance. "Unfortunantly, Glimmer herself would tell you that she's fine but I don't think she is. I think the entity she's dealing with is using her far more than I would, and for things that are more against what she wants, so I can't say the magic words to make you not worry about her."
Catra	"We both know that being an Emperor has nothing to do with how good you actually are at fighting," Catra points out. "Adora and I were two of the best fighters on Etheria and neither of us was a ruler of anything. ...I mean technically Adora's a princess now but she's not a princess with a kingdom, just like-- "You know what nevermind." Catra scowls, "Look no disrespect to you, but if this new 'entity' she's working with gets her killed I'll be back here to rip this building apart all the way down to its plumbing, and we'll find out if I can actually pull that off. And I'd rather not have to find that out. So if things start getting bad, tell me so I can do something about it, okay?" As she speaks, Catra goes for the door, yanking it open and having a quick peek inside before stepping through. "Congrats on getting yourself a pearl. Does that make you an honorary mermaid now?" Like being an honorary princess, Catra? "Just let everyone keep trying to track the Black Card to find me, I've got it worked out how to use it without them catching up. And I like eating food and if I were to stop now they'd know something was up."
Takashi Agera	"You're not giving me a lot and I keep giving you a lot, Catra." Riventon replies. "You stole a lot of energy but that doesn't really make up for the stress you're putting on me. And on Glimmer. Trying to protect you." He says after a moment. "If you care about either of us, figure out a way to like... stop making us cover for you. And pay what you owe. I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about us sticking our necks on the blade line for you." he says. "We're both doing it." "I really shouldn't be letting you go, and I am. Try not to make me regret that, would you?" he asks. "And it's not an honorary mermaid. More honorary Panthalassan, I think. If anything. But mostly, it makes me powerful. More powerful than I was. More powerful than anyone's ready to actually see put against them."
Catra	Catra pauses, stuck motionless where she's standing. Her first impulse is to throw that back in Riventon's face with a cutting remark. But that wouldn't be very wise and it doesn't take her brain overly long to work that out. "All I do is hurt people," she mutters, almost like it was never really intended to be out loud, but it is. "Only thing I've ever been any good at." And she might not entirely be referring to physical violence. "Look... if you need anything, text me and if it's in my power to do it, I'll do it. ...As long as it's not killing somoene, I don't... want to be sent to do what they sent me to do to Hinoiri." She sighs, and finally lets Powersend de-manifest, so she can tuck the hilt back in her pocket. "Or if anything comes up so I can square things with Obsidian, tell me that too. But it's not like I cna find it out for myself when I'm not here." The feline grits her teeth after her veiled admission of vulnerability, however brief it might have been, in place of all the usuall bluster and general refusal to admit weakness to the point of denying the laws of physics. "I'll be in touch," she mutters, before departing down the hall.
Takashi Agera	"You know, if you don't like who you are, you can change that. And only you can. I've seen others try to do it to you with limited success, me included. But if you're unhappy with the person you are, you have the power to change that person." Riventon advises. Even though he hopes the person would be someone better suited to helping him and also knows that's unlikely. "I'll see what I can do on my end, maybe Fuyuko-san can help in some way." He says, musing. "I haven't reached out to her for anything in a long time, maybe she'll be charitable; or more likely, maybe she has a different problem I can solve to cover your furry butt." he adds. "You should get a way to keep in touch with me that doesn't involve sneaking into our office, you know. Something less likely to be lethal to you..." he suggests. "So on that note - maybe I'll be in touch instead, ne?"