"..You know, I do have RPG elements. Just because I'm from something that started as a casual genre - it shouldn't be a big deal that I'm from a match 3 game, you know? I'd rather be judged on my actual merits!"
So here in the impossible hub game and game, a young girl sat (gingerly, minding the metal brace on her leg) at a counter and stared with a dour expression into a frosty mug of... well, root beer. It was excellent stuff, sure. She'd never had a drop of soda back on Sea Cross; carbonated drinks were sold more as a cure-all rather than a sugary beverage. Beside her mug sat an unusual looking lantern - intricate, beautiful really, shining metal studded with strange little orbs in a myriad of colors along one of its sides. It clearly belonged to the girl, who had earlier introduced herself as Claudia to Hisana.
-You look at the girl next to you. You typically only hung around the other Shin Megami Tensei or JRPG characters, so this was a nice change of pace.
"Of course you should! Pfft, look at me; I only exist in a system remake of the original Persona 3. It took so long to convince people I was a good idea..."
-You sigh, downing your root beer quickly and demanding another as you clap Claudia on the back.
"So...what's with the lantern? I don't see how that could be a weapon..."
As the protagonist of a humble little western hybrid casual game/RPG created by... a total of two people, Claudia appreciated getting to talk with someone from so different origins, herself. So far, it had been a hopeful experience: Hisana seemed very personable and open, and not at all uppity like one might have expected.
"But you got them to in the end? How'd you do it...?"
She grips the edge of the table covertly upon getting clapped, a bit paranoid of losing her balance on the high seat.
"Oh, this! My Uncle Monte made it - and he left it to me. It's really a very marvelous thing. He told me you could power a whole village from it - well, hypothetically. Everyone tells me its magic."
-You gave her an odd look at the word "magic". Being a Persona-user, obviously you knew there was magic, but it seemed so strange to think that that shiny lantern could be so powerful. -Then again, you had led a ragtag team of teens, a grade-schooler, a robot with a soul and a dog and managed to save the world. Stranger things have happened.
"What kind of magic? We have a magic system in my game too, but it's always cool to run into other systems. As for how I got them to accept me..."
-You had to think about that. It's not really an easy question for any game character to answer. -... -You decide to answer as best you could anyway.
"Well, I just had to let them see what I can do. I just had to learn to let them draw their own conclusions based on that. I embraced the fans and ignored the haters. Maybe you should try that too."
Claudia perks up at the question - learning is something she loves, and she's never taught anyone about something before - so she's gonna try her best.
"Well... you can't see them now, but there's these little fae - sorry, sorry, elementals - the lantern makes them want to stay with me, as far as I could tell. And by messing with the orbs here..."
Claudia carefully switches the spot of a little red marble with a blue one, forming a row of three reds. They suddenly light up in sparks, making the air nearby unreasonably warm - and vanish, leading the pattern to re-establish itself as new marbles roll in to replace the lost ones.
"...that's fire mana. I can use that to power Fred."
[Quietly lingering anywhere without a lot of talkative people, Keisuke Takagi is not exactly sure if this support group thing is going to work out. What if he runs into Atsuro? It'd be like him to have started this whole thing himself.
...What if he ran into Eishu?]
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
-You notice between conversations that there's this one guy hanging in the back all by himself. Well, that didn't seem right. So, of course you politely break away from this brunette pretty boy from the SMT installment before yours - Tatsuya, was it? - and went over to him.
"You DO realize the point of these is to talk to other people right? Look at you; you're being gloomier than a Shadow over here."
-You sighed.
"I'm Hisana Kagesaki by the way. I'm the Female Protagonist from P3P...Who're you and what installment are you from?"
Edited 2013-04-16 02:02 (UTC)
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
[The idea of crowds like this still.. unsettles him, a bit. He stayed away from large numbers of people at first because of fear of the Death Clock, and later - well, later he was preoccupied. When someone approaches him alone and drags his attention away from the mass of unknown variables in the room, he's nearly thankful.
Keisuke's first response to the scolding is a double take - Yuzu? She's the last person he'd expect to be here, dredging up those memories -
..And it really isn't her. He chooses to ignore the gloomy comment. He's gotten that before.]
...Keisuke Takagi, just a minor player character. You probably haven't heard of my series, but... it's Devil Survivor.
Edited 2013-04-16 02:11 (UTC)
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
"'Devil Survivor'? Sorry, I haven't heard of that one."
-You crossed your arms, slightly embarrassed.
"Well, it's still nice to meet you. Tell me about your game...and why you came to this group. And more importantly, tell me why you're cooped up here in the corner by yourself."
-You smiled, trying to coax this guy out of his shell like you did all your Social Links.
Sayaka had painstakingly rebuilt a school life for herself after the experiments for selfish reasons; it gave her a reason to stay close to Kyousuke Kamijou, after all, and even with everything else in her life - the friendship of her fellow survivors, the dark thrill of slicing Shadows to bits, the dull promise in her heart that with each execution they'd gotten rid of some awful someone who had it coming, he promised - if she didn't have Kyousuke, she knows that the siren that constantly swam through her head would have dragged her down into the black years ago.
It also gave her a prime position of gathering information on SEES, as they were her upperclassmen. She had to be careful. They'd never seen her on a Full Moon before - she hadn't been brought along, those nights, left to stare blankly at a green-tinged wall wondering what was happening while Oktavia whispered violence in her ear. It was a nice bit of anonymity that she'd like to keep.
Still, sometimes there's days where she almost ruins it.
Today she'd accidentally caught the eye of Hisana in the hall, and something in there... it made her feel acid at the back of her throat. She'd never looked the co-leader of SEES in the eye before. Sayaka forced herself to look away, to stare at the floor almost demurely so that she wasn't just beaming all-out hatred right at her.
-It was that freshman again, the blue-haired transfer girl. Something about her always bothered you but you could never place. The moment you thought about going over to her, all the Personas you have on roster started to basically demand you summon them. Why would they see this girl as a threat? -... -You suppress the feeling and went over to her, smiling.
"Do you have a problem with me? I've seen you around, casting furtive glances at me during the day, sometimes following me around. If you have something to say then say it."
-You hadn't meant to sound so harsh but....something about her pissed you off; you couldn't help it!
"A-ah, that is... I'm sorry for being a creep like that, Senpai. I just... I'm not that good at..."
Sayaka fixes her gaze very still on a certain bit of the floor's pattern, face flushing slowly red. Luckily, she was able to call on her genuine embarrassment for getting spotted to get the color right.
-Well, now you felt like a bitch. You quickly try to recover the situation.
"H-hey...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you; I just wanted to find out what was going on."
-You thought about it.
"How about I treat you to something at the Iwatodai strip mall after school today to make up for giving you such a nasty fright, hmm? Unless you have plans already?"
-Now the Personas are REALLY trying to get out, and you visibly wince from the headache it caused. You quickly shut them up and rebury them into the sea of your soul.
Sayaka's gaze jerks up from the floor to meet Hisana's, and inwardly, she's swaying between mortified and suspicion. There is absolutely no way the co-leader of SEES just...
"..Excuse me, Hisana? I wanted to ask a few things."
There was a light touch to Hisana's sleeve, nothing too insistent - it was from one of their two newest members of SEES, a pair of twins differentiated by their mismatched temperaments and eye colors. That sixth sense Hisana has for Personae easily identifies which of the two it is - that's Melpomene, so it must be Kohaku: an amber-eyed girl with a much warmer outward personality.
-You look down at the tiny maid, smiling. As another twin, you feel a special kinship with the girl, especially since you oth have to deal with an emotionally-withdrawn sibling.
"Yes Kohaku? What's on your potato?"
-...
"Oh damn. I meant to say 'What's on your MIND?"
-You mentally curse yourself for messing up your Japanese. Again. At least it wasn't as bad as the time you asked Akihiko the same thing but said "underwear" instead of "potato". You shake your head to rid yourself of the image that popped into your head of your senpai in his rocketship-print boxers.
Kohaku seems to have taken the slip up as a legitimate question, however.
"My potato...? Well, I didn't have any today, but I did make baked potatoes yesterday... Usually I put on sour cream, but Makihisa-sama prefers lots of bacon, as well."
-You sat on the couch, thinking it over. How DO you explain these powers?
"Well, basically Personae are parts of our soul that we conjure up to fight Shadows. They reflect the inner us....think of them as a kind of mask, I guess...Does that make sense?"
-You suppressed a shiver as you realize you sounded a bit like your friendly neighborhood long-nosed, bug-eyed dapper gent that lives in an elevator in some strange blue pocket dimension only you and your brother can access.
Kariya Matou, despite being the Master of one of the most dangerous Servants of the Holy Grail War and possessing a quite frightening visage on his own, was actually quite easy a person to please. Previous experience had proven that; you could wrest from him an honest 'thank you' with almost any kind of practical gift. The main problem, however, was finding him and staying intact while doing so.
Tonight it wasn't any easier.
The corrupted prana of Berserker was something you could sense before even meeting face to face with the Servant - it was a heavy air of killing intent, that teased insistently at the back of one's neck and whispered chills down the spine. Berserker... had to be on this floor.
Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
Despite that and ignoring the panicked shouting of Fuuka - who was only here because she had been coerced by the golden rule of SEES to never go into Tartarus alone - Hisana pressed on, going deeper and deeper into the floor, the Shadows fleeing from the much more powerful girl. The sense of foreboding grew deeper but her stubborn streak refused to let her turn back now. In truth, right now she was more frustrated than scared.
"HEY! MR. HOBO! Come out! I KNOW you're on this floor!"
She stamped her foot in a fit of childish annoyance; she knew that the Master wanted to stay hidden - and for good reason - but sometimes it was ridiculous.
"HELLO~! Hobo-san? ....Crest bugs? ....Hell, I'll take Berserker at this rate! JUST SOMEBODY FUCKING ANSWER ME ALREADY!"
Re: Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
There's a small stir of movement to the peripheral of her vision - a blur of black, and for a harrowing moment it isn't evident exactly which unsavory denizen of Tartarus it could be.
Then, a buzzing of wings.
It lands on the ceiling above her, keeping a respectful distance yet clearly putting itself on display, as if to say 'yes, I can hear you.' The darkness of Tartarus seem slightly less threatening with that sign given. So that's the forerunner; but where's the 'hive'...?
(Farther away in the maze of hallways, Kariya favors his bad ankle with disdain, as if frazzled and dead nerves will revive and obey him just because he'd grimaced at them. But he'd never consider a cane. Something about the sound of one just set his teeth to grinding, in a well-trained reflex of disgust. He'd just have to continue accepting his poor speed.)
Edited 2013-04-26 23:41 (UTC)
Re: Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
She sighed in relief; for a moment she had believed the black blur to be Berserker.
"Hello little guy."
She snickered then put on a fake robotic voice.
"Take me to your leader. Beep."
Hisana giggled at her own joke, slowly following the bug as it started to fly away lazily. A nice perk of being on this guy's Social Link was that the crest bugs didn't attack her anymore. She readjusted the sack hanging over her shoulders, careful not to jostle the cargo within; God forbid something get ruined before she gets the chance to deliver it. Poor Kariya, having to hide out in Tartarus because of needing to extend his life to see the Grail War through to its completion...she figured he deserved at least a BIT of kindness shown to him.
It was a weird kind-of-control that he had; exerting magical influence over the crest bugs was easy as could be when they were already technically his magic circuits - or an extension or override or, whatever, he never cared about any of that before and only wanted to know what was absolutely needed now. Their senses weren't quite his, but magic is influenced by magic - someone like a magus or a persona-user causes fluctuations that tell him, 'there is someone here.' The fact that the bug isn't irritated -
That could only be one likely person:
"...Hisana Kagesaki," he interrupts, finally catching up to her location, looming out quite suddenly from a connecting hall - he'd begun to use the wall as an impromptu support, and that let him pick up pace. That crest bug was attempting to lead her astray, down a hall that lead to a red-tinged Shadow that he had carefully avoided. Even if it recognized her as someone not to attack, it seems the extremely basic defensive plan he'd impressed onto the insects' brains took higher priority. ...Guess he hadn't got the balance quite right yet. "You picked a bad time..."
Edited 2013-04-27 02:38 (UTC)
They're secretly moe, who are we kidding? Speaking of moe...
Hisana quickly rounded on him, instantly in fight mode, her naginata poised to strike. Once she saw it was Kariya though, she relaxed considerably, her weapon dropping to her side rather than staying practically shoved into the guy's worm-riddled face.
"Oh, it's just you. Jesus Christ man, when are you going to learn to NOT SNEAK UP ON ME? I mean, one of these days I might not realize it's you until my blade's shoved through your damn eye or something. And just what is your bug-thing doing leading me down the wrong hallway?"
Hisana sighed, pouting a bit and crossing her arms while tapping her foot in irritation.
"And what do you mean 'a bad time'? This is the ONLY time! Tartarus only exists during the Dark Hour...It was either come now or wait another day, and I refuse to make you wait for this, even if it would only be another hour for you yourself."
At the mention of 'this' she patted the sack she was carrying, scowling slightly at the bug in question.
He simply waits her flaring aggression out, not batting an eyelash. They've both done this exact same thing to each other often - he can still clearly remember the details of their first meeting, after all.
"I think as long as you aim for the bad eye, that'll be fine. As for that bug..."
He reaches his good hand out, palm up - the crest bug flies towards, then somewhere behind him, likely to patrol again. It's not worth changing its task right now.
"The other Masters have been poking their noses into the tower more often lately, that's all. ...Uh."
That's when his curiosity as to the sack's contents starts to actually bleed through, and he gains something similar to a normal person's 'inquisitive expression' - really, he has the universal look that has gotten countless cats into trouble, but with half of it hidden by a frozen mask.
"What is that?"
But more importantly, we have a hobo-related Social Link
"I'm not surprised; the war's started, and everyone now knows that the only way to the Grail is through the tower. Everyone's probably at least starting to feel out Shadows and how Tartarus works. Things will only get harder and more interesting from here on out."
Hisana simply led him to a safe dead-end and smiled, kneeling onto the floor and unwrapping her sack.
"Well, you've been cooped up in here for a good long while. I figured you wouldn't venture out much, especially since the other teams are starting to climb the tower, so I brought you food."
The undone sack revealed a closed container of rice, a thermos of something and a bowl covered in shrink-wrap.
"The thermos has tea in it...and the bowl is some ramen from Hagakure. It's all meat and veggies and...yeah..."
"More difficult, of course, but interesting...?" His disagreement with that particular statement can be seen in the stiff set of his shoulders, but he doesn't let it quite reach his face. "I'm not sure if that's the word I would use."
Try something more like 'maddening.'
These so-called interesting bits struck him more as a supreme waste of time that neither he nor Sakura had to frivolously give away; the Grail's demand of a month-by-month pace was an aggravating example. That he lived it only by inches was a moot point, because while he certainly needed to stretch what little time his body had left until expiration - Sakura still lived each day at its true length.
Sometimes he wondered what would happen if every other Master was slaughtered, but the way to the tower's apex was still locked. Would the Grail appear and simply sit there, tantalizing but unreachable for so-and-so months? Would Zouken accept his victory and fulfill on their deal then, or only after it had been delivered to his hand directly? The latter seemed depressingly likely, and such an early win was a pipe dream in the first place.
What was supposed to be only a single year split itself in two before him. In the outside world that he had left behind, he had heard of this effect before: the phenomenon known as mitosis. The single cancerous cell of this terrible year rapidly prepared to spread.
Nevertheless, Kariya allowed these thoughts to recede back into the depths of his brain, to burrow and rest for another time. For these brief few minutes, he could spare a smile and a lighter mood to this girl, who had cared enough to cater to a doomed man. The smile on his face is not a bitter one.
"You guessed right. ...Thank you. Lately, I keep forgetting myself when it comes to these things." Which is entirely true. Sensations like hunger or pain or fear are like blades. They became dull with inelegant, repetitive use. For him a twisting knife is now like a light pinprick, though his physical self would disagree.
He reaches over first for the thermos of tea - the warmth in it feels nice on his hands, and he doesn't even need to partake to appreciate that. He swishes it around some, . "..Green tea, right?" He's guessing, obviously. Nobody's ever figured out what variety a tea is by the sound alone.
Edited 2013-04-27 15:47 (UTC)
But protag-chan needs to stop getting attached to hobos with depressing backstories...
She fingered her naginata, rolling in back and forth across the tiled floor. becoming lost in thought as the magus started to settle into the meal. The entire situation with the Holy Grail War further complicated the already convoluted problems of SEES, even though the two things were essentially one in the same. Tartarus, Shadows, the Holy Grail, Servants, Masters, magic, wishes, Apathy Syndrome. All of this bullshit, all of it, was inextricably tied together, although by whose design the persona-user couldn't say.
Climbing Tartarus was hard enough what with the Shadows and inherent "accidents" that sometimes occurred during their investigations and the ever-present threat of the enigmatic Death that'll come after them; now, there's the added threat of Berserker, the members of SEES possibly getting eating by Kariya's bugs if they get separated, AND the extra terror of running into ANY of the Master-Servant teams (not to mention the extra stress of bumping into people from your other Social Links and trying to play at being neutral to them). Honestly, after a while the stress of it all was starting to get to Hisana, and was even getting to the normally calm and collected Makoto.
Which brings up the question of what even IS the point to all this insanity. She'd already been told (courtesy of one of her other Social Links, Waver) that the Grail was an omnipotent wish-granting device. But is it really so powerful that it had to have wars waged for it? If something was really THAT powerful, then it was dangerous in every possible way if it fell into the wrong hands. Why didn't they just destroy it? Then again, could any human bring themselves to just destroy such a thing?
Ugh, all this philosophy bullshit was starting to get to her and souring her mood. She scowled slightly at the floor, clenching her fist until the knuckles turned white.
Considering his own constitution, Kariya brings a tentative approach to eating. Rice is reliably plain and easy-going a food, so he tackles that first: the plastic top pops off with a satisfying sound, dripping a little because of the natural condensation of steam off of what had started as freshly cooked rice.
...The simple act of holding chopsticks again is a shockingly nostalgic feeling.
When he's grabbed the first clump of rice, he stops, remembering something - his voice sounds a little apologetic that he has to say it as an afterthought. "Itadikimasu!"
Hisana's free to her gloomy thoughts for a while, as Kariya was quite engrossed in the meal. He'd never realized it was such a complex ritual, eating - when the steps are something you can just go through effortlessly, they become nonexistent to the active mind.
But by then, the sound of her naginata repeatedly rolling across the floor had become a normal part of the background, so when she stops the motion, her knuckles turning bloodless from tension...
Wow, normally she didn't zone out that much, and she usually didn't let her darker emotions show through during her Link events.
"Oh, sorry. Don't mind me; I was just brooding over some stuff. I just don't get this war you mages have going on. You'll have to tell me about it in more detail sometime. However, that's a story for another time..."
Hisana grabbed the bowl of soup then immediately frowned.
"Damn...it's ice cold..."
She stared at the bowl for a moment and then got a look of sheer inspiration and pulled out her Evoker, pressing the cool metal to her temple, a odd wave of calm taking her like it always did when she was about to do a summon.
"Pyro Jack."
She squeezed the trigger, a flash of pale blue light and the sound of breaking glass along with a slight jerk of the head resulting in the image of little Pyro Jack coming into being. It really wasn't all that threatening-looking; a jack-o-lantern head with a witch hat and cloak carrying a lantern. Frankly, if anything the thing was cute...and yet...
Hisana pointed at the bowl and commanded the Persona to cast "Agi" on it. It gaze a little twirl and the fucking bowl lit on fire. Only for a moment though; the gout of flame quickly died out and left a steaming bowl of soup in its wake as Pyro Jack faded away.
...Ah, that's true. The Grail War effected more people than he'd ever expected. It almost slipped his mind that Hisana and her friends had been dragged into it by proxy of Tartarus and its spreading corruption. Of course the Masters were all focused on each other, rather than on suppressing the Shadows. In a situation like that, it was natural that the population at risk would develop a defense mechanism. That's the kind of circumstance that he's sure led to the power of Persona.
...It was just one more inconsiderate side effect of this power play of mages.
"I'm not the best Master to ask if you want an unbiased viewpoint, but I'll be happy to spill tons of bile about it any time."
The sight of the Evoker makes him falter some. The image of someone holding a gun-shaped object to their head while looking so serene... it's an upsetting discord that Kariya has yet to get over. The sharp sound of shattered glass doesn't help. He drops one of the chopsticks.
After the Persona's appear-disappear act, Kariya's left briefly speechless. But eventually, he retrieves the dropped utensil, and with it his voice.
"..Personas can even take the shape of silly things like that?"
"Personae aren't 'silly'. Just because Pyro Jack isn't menacing doesn't mean he isn't powerful; he's based on an Irish spirit that led travelers to their dooms by leading them with his lantern into bogs. And he sets shit on fire and has a multi-target spell which is extremely useful."
The Persona-user huffed, crossing her arms.
"Personae seem to be based on global mythology, kinda like how Servants are heroic figures of the past. As such, you should never judge a Persona based on its appearance, only by its skills."
...Of course, since she was talking to a guy who probably knew a ton more about Servants than her AND could get her killed in a heartbeat, the best course of action here is to not insult him any further.
"A-Anyway, go on and eat. I'll bring you some more food every few - well, days for me, hours for you - so you don't starve, okay? Being eliminated because you starved rather than go down fighting would be pretty lame."
"Okay, okay! So it's dangerous. But it's still cute."
It seems like he won't compromise on that last point, no matter what she says. Any nervousness Hisana felt over potentially insulting him was wasted here - Kariya mysteriously seemed to lack the overblown pride usually held by mages.
The promise of a steady supply of food wars briefly in his heart. It's an instinctual reflex to say 'you don't have to do that' to such an extreme offer of charity. But he really did need the help, and it was already obvious he appreciated it.
"That would be pretty sad, wouldn't it? I'm sure it'd be a good laugh to certain people, but I'd prefer ruining their humor. Okay. I can definitely accept your help."
..and if he singed his tongue on the ramen, well, that was just a reminder he was still alive, right?
She honestly expected him to tell her no or that she shouldn't bother or something along those lines. She was happy that he accepted.
"Well alright then! Guess this means your stuck with me~."
And sudden burst of "static" from Fuuka made her flinch, signalling the need for her to leave.
"Sorry I can't stay longer but the Dark Hour's ending and I need to go. Just keep the dishes nearby and I'll get them another time, okay? Later Kariya-san."
And with that and a little wave she was gone, rounding the corner in search of a transporter.
..Ah, she left so quickly... He didn't really have time to say anything else.
As the single hour that Kariya Matou existed, each day, rounded to a close, he contemplated the silence left behind in that girl's absence: soon enough, his ears would acclimate to his solitude again, and he would start hearing such things as his own ragged breathing, the movement of the worms, or even that soft growl, that seems to always be ready to rise from Berserker's throat.
But for now, there was a peaceful Nothing in the space left behind by receding footsteps. He closed his single functioning eye to appreciate the noise alone -
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
So here in the impossible hub game and game, a young girl sat (gingerly, minding the metal brace on her leg) at a counter and stared with a dour expression into a frosty mug of... well, root beer. It was excellent stuff, sure. She'd never had a drop of soda back on Sea Cross; carbonated drinks were sold more as a cure-all rather than a sugary beverage. Beside her mug sat an unusual looking lantern - intricate, beautiful really, shining metal studded with strange little orbs in a myriad of colors along one of its sides. It clearly belonged to the girl, who had earlier introduced herself as Claudia to Hisana.
Well, isn't this place odd?
"Of course you should! Pfft, look at me; I only exist in a system remake of the original Persona 3. It took so long to convince people I was a good idea..."
-You sigh, downing your root beer quickly and demanding another as you clap Claudia on the back.
"So...what's with the lantern? I don't see how that could be a weapon..."
Re: Well, isn't this place odd?
"But you got them to in the end? How'd you do it...?"
She grips the edge of the table covertly upon getting clapped, a bit paranoid of losing her balance on the high seat.
"Oh, this! My Uncle Monte made it - and he left it to me. It's really a very marvelous thing. He told me you could power a whole village from it - well, hypothetically. Everyone tells me its magic."
Re: Well, isn't this place odd?
-Then again, you had led a ragtag team of teens, a grade-schooler, a robot with a soul and a dog and managed to save the world. Stranger things have happened.
"What kind of magic? We have a magic system in my game too, but it's always cool to run into other systems. As for how I got them to accept me..."
-You had to think about that. It's not really an easy question for any game character to answer.
-...
-You decide to answer as best you could anyway.
"Well, I just had to let them see what I can do. I just had to learn to let them draw their own conclusions based on that. I embraced the fans and ignored the haters. Maybe you should try that too."
no subject
"Well... you can't see them now, but there's these little fae - sorry, sorry, elementals - the lantern makes them want to stay with me, as far as I could tell. And by messing with the orbs here..."
Claudia carefully switches the spot of a little red marble with a blue one, forming a row of three reds. They suddenly light up in sparks, making the air nearby unreasonably warm - and vanish, leading the pattern to re-establish itself as new marbles roll in to replace the lost ones.
"...that's fire mana. I can use that to power Fred."
no subject
"Wow. It's kinda like Personas then! Except...you know...you don't have to shoot yourself in the head to get them to help you."
-You poke the lantern, then stop suddenly and look up at her.
"...Fred? It's name is FRED?"
no subject
"His name is Fred! Oh, don't, I'm sure she didn't mean to be rude--"
Claudia's gaze darts into the open air, as she asks some invisible presence to calm down. Fred, probably.
On a related note, the air suddenly seems to be think with the smell of something threatening to burn - but there's nothing on fire yet.
Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
...What if he ran into Eishu?]
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
"You DO realize the point of these is to talk to other people right? Look at you; you're being gloomier than a Shadow over here."
-You sighed.
"I'm Hisana Kagesaki by the way. I'm the Female Protagonist from P3P...Who're you and what installment are you from?"
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
Keisuke's first response to the scolding is a double take - Yuzu? She's the last person he'd expect to be here, dredging up those memories -
..And it really isn't her. He chooses to ignore the gloomy comment. He's gotten that before.]
...Keisuke Takagi, just a minor player character. You probably haven't heard of my series, but... it's Devil Survivor.
Re: Meanwhile, at an "I was an SMT Character" support group...
"'Devil Survivor'? Sorry, I haven't heard of that one."
-You crossed your arms, slightly embarrassed.
"Well, it's still nice to meet you. Tell me about your game...and why you came to this group. And more importantly, tell me why you're cooped up here in the corner by yourself."
-You smiled, trying to coax this guy out of his shell like you did all your Social Links.
STREGA AU GOOOOOO~
It also gave her a prime position of gathering information on SEES, as they were her upperclassmen. She had to be careful. They'd never seen her on a Full Moon before - she hadn't been brought along, those nights, left to stare blankly at a green-tinged wall wondering what was happening while Oktavia whispered violence in her ear. It was a nice bit of anonymity that she'd like to keep.
Still, sometimes there's days where she almost ruins it.
Today she'd accidentally caught the eye of Hisana in the hall, and something in there... it made her feel acid at the back of her throat. She'd never looked the co-leader of SEES in the eye before. Sayaka forced herself to look away, to stare at the floor almost demurely so that she wasn't just beaming all-out hatred right at her.
Re: STREGA AU GOOOOOO~
-...
-You suppress the feeling and went over to her, smiling.
"Do you have a problem with me? I've seen you around, casting furtive glances at me during the day, sometimes following me around. If you have something to say then say it."
-You hadn't meant to sound so harsh but....something about her pissed you off; you couldn't help it!
no subject
"A-ah, that is... I'm sorry for being a creep like that, Senpai. I just... I'm not that good at..."
Sayaka fixes her gaze very still on a certain bit of the floor's pattern, face flushing slowly red. Luckily, she was able to call on her genuine embarrassment for getting spotted to get the color right.
no subject
"H-hey...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you; I just wanted to find out what was going on."
-You thought about it.
"How about I treat you to something at the Iwatodai strip mall after school today to make up for giving you such a nasty fright, hmm? Unless you have plans already?"
-Now the Personas are REALLY trying to get out, and you visibly wince from the headache it caused. You quickly shut them up and rebury them into the sea of your soul.
no subject
"Um...!"
Sayaka's gaze jerks up from the floor to meet Hisana's, and inwardly, she's swaying between mortified and suspicion. There is absolutely no way the co-leader of SEES just...
"Okay! I'd love to!"
no subject
"Awesome! You can pick where; I like ALL the food in the strip mall!"
-You laugh, thinking of all the delicious food there and how fun this might be, despite the warning bells going off in your soul.
extraneous High Priestess link, /go/
There was a light touch to Hisana's sleeve, nothing too insistent - it was from one of their two newest members of SEES, a pair of twins differentiated by their mismatched temperaments and eye colors. That sixth sense Hisana has for Personae easily identifies which of the two it is - that's Melpomene, so it must be Kohaku: an amber-eyed girl with a much warmer outward personality.
Re: extraneous High Priestess link, /go/
"Yes Kohaku? What's on your potato?"
-...
"Oh damn. I meant to say 'What's on your MIND?"
-You mentally curse yourself for messing up your Japanese. Again. At least it wasn't as bad as the time you asked Akihiko the same thing but said "underwear" instead of "potato". You shake your head to rid yourself of the image that popped into your head of your senpai in his rocketship-print boxers.
no subject
"My potato...? Well, I didn't have any today, but I did make baked potatoes yesterday... Usually I put on sour cream, but Makihisa-sama prefers lots of bacon, as well."
no subject
-You pause. What were you talking about again? Oh yeah!
"A-Anyway...you had questions you wanted to ask?"
no subject
future food-based manipulationfuture treating."--Oh, we did get a little off track. Now that everything's settled down... I wanted to ask more about how this power we have works."
no subject
-You sat on the couch, thinking it over. How DO you explain these powers?
"Well, basically Personae are parts of our soul that we conjure up to fight Shadows. They reflect the inner us....think of them as a kind of mask, I guess...Does that make sense?"
-You suppressed a shiver as you realize you sounded a bit like your friendly neighborhood long-nosed, bug-eyed dapper gent that lives in an elevator in some strange blue pocket dimension only you and your brother can access.
no subject
"...It's interesting that it's the 'inner self' that becomes a mask. That just sounds a little backward to me, eheheh..."
Tartarus, somewhere within the Arqa Block
Tonight it wasn't any easier.
The corrupted prana of Berserker was something you could sense before even meeting face to face with the Servant - it was a heavy air of killing intent, that teased insistently at the back of one's neck and whispered chills down the spine. Berserker... had to be on this floor.
Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
"HEY! MR. HOBO! Come out! I KNOW you're on this floor!"
She stamped her foot in a fit of childish annoyance; she knew that the Master wanted to stay hidden - and for good reason - but sometimes it was ridiculous.
"HELLO~! Hobo-san? ....Crest bugs? ....Hell, I'll take Berserker at this rate! JUST SOMEBODY FUCKING ANSWER ME ALREADY!"
Re: Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
Then,
a buzzing of wings.
It lands on the ceiling above her, keeping a respectful distance yet clearly putting itself on display, as if to say 'yes, I can hear you.' The darkness of Tartarus seem slightly less threatening with that sign given. So that's the forerunner; but where's the 'hive'...?
(Farther away in the maze of hallways, Kariya favors his bad ankle with disdain, as if frazzled and dead nerves will revive and obey him just because he'd grimaced at them. But he'd never consider a cane. Something about the sound of one just set his teeth to grinding, in a well-trained reflex of disgust. He'd just have to continue accepting his poor speed.)
Re: Crazy knights, bug-infested hobos and Shadows, oh my!
"Hello little guy."
She snickered then put on a fake robotic voice.
"Take me to your leader. Beep."
Hisana giggled at her own joke, slowly following the bug as it started to fly away lazily. A nice perk of being on this guy's Social Link was that the crest bugs didn't attack her anymore. She readjusted the sack hanging over her shoulders, careful not to jostle the cargo within; God forbid something get ruined before she gets the chance to deliver it. Poor Kariya, having to hide out in Tartarus because of needing to extend his life to see the Grail War through to its completion...she figured he deserved at least a BIT of kindness shown to him.
we keep making the crest bugs moe
It was a weird kind-of-control that he had; exerting magical influence over the crest bugs was easy as could be when they were already technically his magic circuits - or an extension or override or, whatever, he never cared about any of that before and only wanted to know what was absolutely needed now. Their senses weren't quite his, but magic is influenced by magic - someone like a magus or a persona-user causes fluctuations that tell him, 'there is someone here.' The fact that the bug isn't irritated -
That could only be one likely person:
"...Hisana Kagesaki," he interrupts, finally catching up to her location, looming out quite suddenly from a connecting hall - he'd begun to use the wall as an impromptu support, and that let him pick up pace. That crest bug was attempting to lead her astray, down a hall that lead to a red-tinged Shadow that he had carefully avoided. Even if it recognized her as someone not to attack, it seems the extremely basic defensive plan he'd impressed onto the insects' brains took higher priority. ...Guess he hadn't got the balance quite right yet. "You picked a bad time..."
They're secretly moe, who are we kidding? Speaking of moe...
"Oh, it's just you. Jesus Christ man, when are you going to learn to NOT SNEAK UP ON ME? I mean, one of these days I might not realize it's you until my blade's shoved through your damn eye or something. And just what is your bug-thing doing leading me down the wrong hallway?"
Hisana sighed, pouting a bit and crossing her arms while tapping her foot in irritation.
"And what do you mean 'a bad time'? This is the ONLY time! Tartarus only exists during the Dark Hour...It was either come now or wait another day, and I refuse to make you wait for this, even if it would only be another hour for you yourself."
At the mention of 'this' she patted the sack she was carrying, scowling slightly at the bug in question.
moe moe parasite-kuns
"I think as long as you aim for the bad eye, that'll be fine. As for that bug..."
He reaches his good hand out, palm up - the crest bug flies towards, then somewhere behind him, likely to patrol again. It's not worth changing its task right now.
"The other Masters have been poking their noses into the tower more often lately, that's all. ...Uh."
That's when his curiosity as to the sack's contents starts to actually bleed through, and he gains something similar to a normal person's 'inquisitive expression' - really, he has the universal look that has gotten countless cats into trouble, but with half of it hidden by a frozen mask.
"What is that?"
But more importantly, we have a hobo-related Social Link
Hisana simply led him to a safe dead-end and smiled, kneeling onto the floor and unwrapping her sack.
"Well, you've been cooped up in here for a good long while. I figured you wouldn't venture out much, especially since the other teams are starting to climb the tower, so I brought you food."
The undone sack revealed a closed container of rice, a thermos of something and a bowl covered in shrink-wrap.
"The thermos has tea in it...and the bowl is some ramen from Hagakure. It's all meat and veggies and...yeah..."
Hisana trailed off, looking slightly embarrassed.
the best social link or best social link
Try something more like 'maddening.'
These so-called interesting bits struck him more as a supreme waste of time that neither he nor Sakura had to frivolously give away; the Grail's demand of a month-by-month pace was an aggravating example. That he lived it only by inches was a moot point, because while he certainly needed to stretch what little time his body had left until expiration - Sakura still lived each day at its true length.
Sometimes he wondered what would happen if every other Master was slaughtered, but the way to the tower's apex was still locked. Would the Grail appear and simply sit there, tantalizing but unreachable for so-and-so months? Would Zouken accept his victory and fulfill on their deal then, or only after it had been delivered to his hand directly? The latter seemed depressingly likely, and such an early win was a pipe dream in the first place.
What was supposed to be only a single year split itself in two before him. In the outside world that he had left behind, he had heard of this effect before: the phenomenon known as mitosis. The single cancerous cell of this terrible year rapidly prepared to spread.
Nevertheless, Kariya allowed these thoughts to recede back into the depths of his brain, to burrow and rest for another time. For these brief few minutes, he could spare a smile and a lighter mood to this girl, who had cared enough to cater to a doomed man. The smile on his face is not a bitter one.
"You guessed right. ...Thank you. Lately, I keep forgetting myself when it comes to these things." Which is entirely true. Sensations like hunger or pain or fear are like blades. They became dull with inelegant, repetitive use. For him a twisting knife is now like a light pinprick, though his physical self would disagree.
He reaches over first for the thermos of tea - the warmth in it feels nice on his hands, and he doesn't even need to partake to appreciate that. He swishes it around some, . "..Green tea, right?" He's guessing, obviously. Nobody's ever figured out what variety a tea is by the sound alone.
But protag-chan needs to stop getting attached to hobos with depressing backstories...
"No, it's white tea actually. Close though."
She fingered her naginata, rolling in back and forth across the tiled floor. becoming lost in thought as the magus started to settle into the meal. The entire situation with the Holy Grail War further complicated the already convoluted problems of SEES, even though the two things were essentially one in the same. Tartarus, Shadows, the Holy Grail, Servants, Masters, magic, wishes, Apathy Syndrome. All of this bullshit, all of it, was inextricably tied together, although by whose design the persona-user couldn't say.
Climbing Tartarus was hard enough what with the Shadows and inherent "accidents" that sometimes occurred during their investigations and the ever-present threat of the enigmatic Death that'll come after them; now, there's the added threat of Berserker, the members of SEES possibly getting eating by Kariya's bugs if they get separated, AND the extra terror of running into ANY of the Master-Servant teams (not to mention the extra stress of bumping into people from your other Social Links and trying to play at being neutral to them). Honestly, after a while the stress of it all was starting to get to Hisana, and was even getting to the normally calm and collected Makoto.
Which brings up the question of what even IS the point to all this insanity. She'd already been told (courtesy of one of her other Social Links, Waver) that the Grail was an omnipotent wish-granting device. But is it really so powerful that it had to have wars waged for it? If something was really THAT powerful, then it was dangerous in every possible way if it fell into the wrong hands. Why didn't they just destroy it? Then again, could any human bring themselves to just destroy such a thing?
Ugh, all this philosophy bullshit was starting to get to her and souring her mood. She scowled slightly at the floor, clenching her fist until the knuckles turned white.
muffled sound of a hobo eating in the distance
...The simple act of holding chopsticks again is a shockingly nostalgic feeling.
When he's grabbed the first clump of rice, he stops, remembering something - his voice sounds a little apologetic that he has to say it as an afterthought. "Itadikimasu!"
Hisana's free to her gloomy thoughts for a while, as Kariya was quite engrossed in the meal. He'd never realized it was such a complex ritual, eating - when the steps are something you can just go through effortlessly, they become nonexistent to the active mind.
But by then, the sound of her naginata repeatedly rolling across the floor had become a normal part of the background, so when she stops the motion, her knuckles turning bloodless from tension...
"..Hisana-san. Is something bothering you?"
Mundane use for epic magic time
Wow, normally she didn't zone out that much, and she usually didn't let her darker emotions show through during her Link events.
"Oh, sorry. Don't mind me; I was just brooding over some stuff. I just don't get this war you mages have going on. You'll have to tell me about it in more detail sometime. However, that's a story for another time..."
Hisana grabbed the bowl of soup then immediately frowned.
"Damn...it's ice cold..."
She stared at the bowl for a moment and then got a look of sheer inspiration and pulled out her Evoker, pressing the cool metal to her temple, a odd wave of calm taking her like it always did when she was about to do a summon.
"Pyro Jack."
She squeezed the trigger, a flash of pale blue light and the sound of breaking glass along with a slight jerk of the head resulting in the image of little Pyro Jack coming into being. It really wasn't all that threatening-looking; a jack-o-lantern head with a witch hat and cloak carrying a lantern. Frankly, if anything the thing was cute...and yet...
Hisana pointed at the bowl and commanded the Persona to cast "Agi" on it. It gaze a little twirl and the fucking bowl lit on fire. Only for a moment though; the gout of flame quickly died out and left a steaming bowl of soup in its wake as Pyro Jack faded away.
"Careful, it might be borderline-boiling now."
you could say he's agidyne-ing in style
...It was just one more inconsiderate side effect of this power play of mages.
"I'm not the best Master to ask if you want an unbiased viewpoint, but I'll be happy to spill tons of bile about it any time."
The sight of the Evoker makes him falter some. The image of someone holding a gun-shaped object to their head while looking so serene... it's an upsetting discord that Kariya has yet to get over. The sharp sound of shattered glass doesn't help. He drops one of the chopsticks.
After the Persona's appear-disappear act, Kariya's left briefly speechless. But eventually, he retrieves the dropped utensil, and with it his voice.
"..Personas can even take the shape of silly things like that?"
Personae aren't silly
"Personae aren't 'silly'. Just because Pyro Jack isn't menacing doesn't mean he isn't powerful; he's based on an Irish spirit that led travelers to their dooms by leading them with his lantern into bogs. And he sets shit on fire and has a multi-target spell which is extremely useful."
The Persona-user huffed, crossing her arms.
"Personae seem to be based on global mythology, kinda like how Servants are heroic figures of the past. As such, you should never judge a Persona based on its appearance, only by its skills."
...Of course, since she was talking to a guy who probably knew a ton more about Servants than her AND could get her killed in a heartbeat, the best course of action here is to not insult him any further.
"A-Anyway, go on and eat. I'll bring you some more food every few - well, days for me, hours for you - so you don't starve, okay? Being eliminated because you starved rather than go down fighting would be pretty lame."
jacks are sillytastic tho
It seems like he won't compromise on that last point, no matter what she says. Any nervousness Hisana felt over potentially insulting him was wasted here - Kariya mysteriously seemed to lack the overblown pride usually held by mages.
The promise of a steady supply of food wars briefly in his heart. It's an instinctual reflex to say 'you don't have to do that' to such an extreme offer of charity. But he really did need the help, and it was already obvious he appreciated it.
"That would be pretty sad, wouldn't it? I'm sure it'd be a good laugh to certain people, but I'd prefer ruining their humor. Okay. I can definitely accept your help."
..and if he singed his tongue on the ramen, well, that was just a reminder he was still alive, right?
True
She honestly expected him to tell her no or that she shouldn't bother or something along those lines. She was happy that he accepted.
"Well alright then! Guess this means your stuck with me~."
And sudden burst of "static" from Fuuka made her flinch, signalling the need for her to leave.
"Sorry I can't stay longer but the Dark Hour's ending and I need to go. Just keep the dishes nearby and I'll get them another time, okay? Later Kariya-san."
And with that and a little wave she was gone, rounding the corner in search of a transporter.
[/aaand thread end]
As the single hour that Kariya Matou existed, each day, rounded to a close, he contemplated the silence left behind in that girl's absence: soon enough, his ears would acclimate to his solitude again, and he would start hearing such things as his own ragged breathing, the movement of the worms, or even that soft growl, that seems to always be ready to rise from Berserker's throat.
But for now, there was a peaceful Nothing in the space left behind by receding footsteps. He closed his single functioning eye to appreciate the noise alone -
and for twenty four hours he simply cea̷sed.