[Maybe he's right, and she's wrong. She drops her hands to either side and lets her fingers trace idle patterns in the grass as she gazes up at the colors around the setting sun. It's a little chilly, and since that final battle, it's been a little difficult to stay out in the cold, but -- it's fine.]
Everyone on my team... we all had to come to terms with our own deaths, [she says finally.] We all had different ways of handling it, but we all reached the same conclusion in the end. It's better to fight for the chance to try to fix things and die trying than live in a way that's comfortable.
I'm fighting. It's just a different one than what you'd expect.
[Ultimately, he keeps fighting for his own free will and authority of his own person. To die and go back to being dead were choices that he made, and now it's like he's been robbed again. As far as he's aware Aldrip isn't some kind of afterlife or purgatory so he can't even take his presence here as a natural continuation.]
When Akira said you were like us did he just mean having a persona or is there something else?
[Again, said simply. She won't pry into whatever his battles are; if he wants to tell her, he can. But it isn't surprising at all. Now that they're talking somewhat more honestly, Akechi seems like the kind of person who's had to fight a lot.
Her eyebrow raises at his question, lip quirking up briefly.]
I'm not a Phantom Thief, if that's what you're asking. [There's a note of humor in her voice at the prospect. It just sounds so... dramatic? Showy? Sure, the English name for SEES was equally dramatic, but it's not like they went around announcing themselves as such.] We don't steal hearts or send calling cards or anything like that. We just fight Shadows.
I'm gonna guess you don't know anything about the Dark Hour?
[Said back with equal amount of the amusement.. He knows that Akira might see it differently but Akechi has never counted himself being part of the team. He'd only assist them out of necessity.]
No, I can't say I have. Is it a time when shadows appear? [because it would be logical]
Mm, something like that. Between midnight and 1AM, it was like... a secret hour. Most people transmogrified into coffins, but not everybody. Some people were like us, who had the potential to awaken a Persona, others were just... regular people. Usually Shadows stayed in Tartarus -- this tower that our school would turn into during the Dark Hour -- but once a month, really big ones would come into the city itself.
[Boy, that's a lot of words to try to sum up something very complicated that she doesn't particularly like explaining. She hesitates, reaching briefly for the hem of her skirt before deciding that drawing a gun in front of Akechi after what had last happened maybe isn't the best idea.]
My "gun" isn't a gun at all. It's an Evoker. It's how we summoned our Personas.
[Akechi listens to her quietly, taking in any information he could. What she's describing reminds him of Mementos to some extent. Could it be an occurring abnormality where the metaverse bled into reality like it had done during Maruki's reign?
He'll talk about this with Akira later, but more importantly:]
After Akechi's behavior in the bar, she doesn't really trust him not to do anything rash like try to steal her Evoker and use it on himself.]
No, I don't think so. [She shrugs.] There's no Dark Hour, after all. [It's not like the Dark Hour is required to use an Evoker -- Chidori's Persona tried to strangle her in broad daylight, after all -- but she doesn't have any proof of that. Akechi doesn't have to know that she hasn't tried to find said proof.]
[He finds that hard to believe. Personas are part of them, after all. Why wouldn't someone try to reach for that power and see if they could summons them.]
No. Our powers only work in metaverse. I can still feel them.
[No, she hasn't tried, because the consequences of trying to summon her Persona and not being able to control it here would be disastrous. People could be killed. And while she's accepted her own death, she isn't so willing to just cast others into that fate to satisfy her curiosity.
More importantly-]
You said them? [Her brows quirk up.] You have more than one, Akechi-san?
[Said ever so casually. He knows that's what sets him apart from the rest of the persona users, what makes him special compared to anyone else. Robin Hood and Loki were both proofs of his power and shortcomings.]
[Said very simply. Even if Akechi hadn't gone through that whole display with Dazai, she's not about to just hand her Evoker over. The risk is too great for something to go wrong. Forcing out a Persona when that's not normally the summoning method for him? Definitely not a smart plan, especially when she's the only one here.
Ha. Having Dazai around would make it less risky, probably, but she's definitely not calling him up here, either.]
[Well, he can't say that he's surprised to hear her answer. He'd told her the same if their roles were reversed. It's risky and potentially fatal if things got out off their hands. But he still needs to ask.]
Not right now, of course. We would have to establish a neutral and controlled space and plan for counter measures in case the worst happens. [He, too, almost suggests they'd call Dazai. His power could come in handy, although he's not sure how it would affect already summoned persona.]
Experimenting with it could help us understand the nature of this world better. I'm not asking for a definite answer right away. Just think on it and we can come back to this later if you feel like it.
[She hums in a decidedly neutral tone, the kind that implies that she's already thought about it, and the answer is still no. Akechi might be a fellow Persona user, but especially in the wake of his scuffle with Dazai, she has no intention of allowing him anywhere near either her Evoker or Shinji's.
...Counting her lucky stars that Akechi doesn't know about Shinji, and she has even less intention of telling him now than she would have before.]
Who are your Personas? [she asks instead in an attempt to change the topic.]
[She admits it easily enough, pillowing her head back comfortably on her arms again now that the topic is something a little less fraught. If he wants her to go first, that's fine! She won't argue.]
But I fused a lot more since then. I don't have Orpheus with me anymore.
[She'll always have a soft spot in her heart for Orpheus, and sometimes she even imagines she hears her voice, but as a physical presence to be summoned? Not right now.]
[The smile that raises to her lips is more reflexive than genuine, a small one that barely touches her eyes.]
Something like that.
[But her brows knit as she looks at him, smile fading into a thoughtful frown.]
You said you had more than one. You don't know?
[Like, Akira had mentioned Igor, so she'd just assumed that if Akechi also had more than one, he'd also been a guest of the Velvet Room. That would only make sense, right?]
[Well, that sentiment does track, doesn't it? So far all of the persona users have gone through their own, very personal hell to awaken the flames of rebellion. He really doesn't expect Kotone to be any different. Although, it is quite interesting to think that out of all possible Personas Orpheus was hers. Ancient hero, defying the death.]
No. I can't say I do. [a thoughtful frown forms to his face. He's never heard of fusing personas together.. How would one even execute such process? Somehow he feels like Akira would know answer to this and it kinda pisses him off.]
I see. [That indeed is like Akira's power, something he had assumed to be unique just to him. Running through the metaverse, collecting wayward personas within his mask. A power, that he could have possessed as well, if things hadn't gone the way they had.
If he and Akira only would have met earlier.. But lingering on such idle, useless dream is no good. That didn't happen and Akechi deprived himself of that power.
Unsurprisingly, he wants to know more about the fusing, the concept alone is intriguing. But he knows she's not likely to answer him if he doesn't give him anything back.]
When I woke to my power I had two Personas manifest. [He looks at the sky painted in warm and brilliant colors, faint pink shading to almost intense orange.] I believe it was meant to match Akira's power. But in the end he was more special than me.
[Now that catches her attention. Akira hadn't mentioned anything like that -- he'd only said Arsene. It reminds her of how Thanatos had ripped himself free of Orpheus to rip the Magician Shadow limb from limb, beating it into little more than an inky pulp.
And the idea of matching Akira's power quirks her eyebrows yet again. Theo had never said anything about there being another guest of the Velvet Room at the same time as her, but there had been his sister, Margaret. Stuff from that realm was hard to remember, a weird kind of space even for Tartarus and the Velvet Room, but... she hums thoughtfully. That's less important, she thinks.]
I didn't think being special was a competition, [she points out simply, tilting her head to gaze at him instead of the sunset.] If you have the potential to awaken a Persona at all, that seems pretty special to me. I don't think anyone is "more special" or "less special" than anyone else. Just different.
[Everything is a competition if you make it! His inferiority complex and depression tells him so.
He stays quiet for a while, neutral expression focusing on the sky rather than her. "Just different", that thought of line is exact opposite to his own. He needs to be special, better than everyone else, to be more worthy, even among within the persona users. Being lumped together with the rest of them is no different than being just one fly among the others.
Akira always stood out from the rest of the group because of his natural talent and power. So he needed too. He wouldn't lose to him.]
[Oh, Akechi. As someone who'd never intended to be special, who hadn't really wanted to be special, she can't quite understand it, either. It's not like she'd asked for a fragment of Death to be lodged into her soul at seven years old. Being special doesn't mean better -- if she'd learned anything from her friends, it's that.]
I had a someone who helped me. [She stretches her legs out again and shifts to sit on her heels instead, holding out her hands overtop with fingers splayed.] Using them like tarot cards, he could change them.
[Sure, Igor was the one in charge of that, but Theo is the one she actually likes.]
[Now that he thinks of Akira did occasionally show up with personas that he hadn't seen him capturing. So he must have been fusing them too when no one was there to see it. His mind goes back to that mysterious girl, Lavenza. She must have something to do with it.]
It seems like there is still a much that I don't know about Personas.
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[Maybe he's right, and she's wrong. She drops her hands to either side and lets her fingers trace idle patterns in the grass as she gazes up at the colors around the setting sun. It's a little chilly, and since that final battle, it's been a little difficult to stay out in the cold, but -- it's fine.]
Everyone on my team... we all had to come to terms with our own deaths, [she says finally.] We all had different ways of handling it, but we all reached the same conclusion in the end. It's better to fight for the chance to try to fix things and die trying than live in a way that's comfortable.
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[Ultimately, he keeps fighting for his own free will and authority of his own person. To die and go back to being dead were choices that he made, and now it's like he's been robbed again. As far as he's aware Aldrip isn't some kind of afterlife or purgatory so he can't even take his presence here as a natural continuation.]
When Akira said you were like us did he just mean having a persona or is there something else?
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[Again, said simply. She won't pry into whatever his battles are; if he wants to tell her, he can. But it isn't surprising at all. Now that they're talking somewhat more honestly, Akechi seems like the kind of person who's had to fight a lot.
Her eyebrow raises at his question, lip quirking up briefly.]
I'm not a Phantom Thief, if that's what you're asking. [There's a note of humor in her voice at the prospect. It just sounds so... dramatic? Showy? Sure, the English name for SEES was equally dramatic, but it's not like they went around announcing themselves as such.] We don't steal hearts or send calling cards or anything like that. We just fight Shadows.
I'm gonna guess you don't know anything about the Dark Hour?
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[Said back with equal amount of the amusement.. He knows that Akira might see it differently but Akechi has never counted himself being part of the team. He'd only assist them out of necessity.]
No, I can't say I have. Is it a time when shadows appear? [because it would be logical]
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[Boy, that's a lot of words to try to sum up something very complicated that she doesn't particularly like explaining. She hesitates, reaching briefly for the hem of her skirt before deciding that drawing a gun in front of Akechi after what had last happened maybe isn't the best idea.]
My "gun" isn't a gun at all. It's an Evoker. It's how we summoned our Personas.
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He'll talk about this with Akira later, but more importantly:]
Can you use it in this world?
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>Lie
>Tell the truth
>Dodge
After Akechi's behavior in the bar, she doesn't really trust him not to do anything rash like try to steal her Evoker and use it on himself.]
No, I don't think so. [She shrugs.] There's no Dark Hour, after all. [It's not like the Dark Hour is required to use an Evoker -- Chidori's Persona tried to strangle her in broad daylight, after all -- but she doesn't have any proof of that. Akechi doesn't have to know that she hasn't tried to find said proof.]
Can you summon yours?
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[He finds that hard to believe. Personas are part of them, after all. Why wouldn't someone try to reach for that power and see if they could summons them.]
No. Our powers only work in metaverse. I can still feel them.
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[No, she hasn't tried, because the consequences of trying to summon her Persona and not being able to control it here would be disastrous. People could be killed. And while she's accepted her own death, she isn't so willing to just cast others into that fate to satisfy her curiosity.
More importantly-]
You said them? [Her brows quirk up.] You have more than one, Akechi-san?
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[Said ever so casually. He knows that's what sets him apart from the rest of the persona users, what makes him special compared to anyone else. Robin Hood and Loki were both proofs of his power and shortcomings.]
Can I try it?
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[Said very simply. Even if Akechi hadn't gone through that whole display with Dazai, she's not about to just hand her Evoker over. The risk is too great for something to go wrong. Forcing out a Persona when that's not normally the summoning method for him? Definitely not a smart plan, especially when she's the only one here.
Ha. Having Dazai around would make it less risky, probably, but she's definitely not calling him up here, either.]
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Not right now, of course. We would have to establish a neutral and controlled space and plan for counter measures in case the worst happens. [He, too, almost suggests they'd call Dazai. His power could come in handy, although he's not sure how it would affect already summoned persona.]
Experimenting with it could help us understand the nature of this world better. I'm not asking for a definite answer right away. Just think on it and we can come back to this later if you feel like it.
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...Counting her lucky stars that Akechi doesn't know about Shinji, and she has even less intention of telling him now than she would have before.]
Who are your Personas? [she asks instead in an attempt to change the topic.]
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Who is yours?
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[She admits it easily enough, pillowing her head back comfortably on her arms again now that the topic is something a little less fraught. If he wants her to go first, that's fine! She won't argue.]
But I fused a lot more since then. I don't have Orpheus with me anymore.
[She'll always have a soft spot in her heart for Orpheus, and sometimes she even imagines she hears her voice, but as a physical presence to be summoned? Not right now.]
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[He laughs a little.] So you traveled through hell and back?
[Because that's how the myth goes, right? Orpheus traveling to underworld to find his dead wife. Very different to Akira's Arséne.]
What do you mean by fusing?
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Something like that.
[But her brows knit as she looks at him, smile fading into a thoughtful frown.]
You said you had more than one. You don't know?
[Like, Akira had mentioned Igor, so she'd just assumed that if Akechi also had more than one, he'd also been a guest of the Velvet Room. That would only make sense, right?]
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No. I can't say I do. [a thoughtful frown forms to his face. He's never heard of fusing personas together.. How would one even execute such process? Somehow he feels like Akira would know answer to this and it kinda pisses him off.]
You wouldn't happen to be a "wildcard"?
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[So Akechi has more than one, but he isn't a wildcard, nor was he a guest of the Velvet Room... interesting.
She stretches out her legs briefly before drawing them back in with a soft hum of interest.]
I had a lot of different Personas over the months we were fighting.
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If he and Akira only would have met earlier.. But lingering on such idle, useless dream is no good. That didn't happen and Akechi deprived himself of that power.
Unsurprisingly, he wants to know more about the fusing, the concept alone is intriguing. But he knows she's not likely to answer him if he doesn't give him anything back.]
When I woke to my power I had two Personas manifest. [He looks at the sky painted in warm and brilliant colors, faint pink shading to almost intense orange.] I believe it was meant to match Akira's power. But in the end he was more special than me.
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[Now that catches her attention. Akira hadn't mentioned anything like that -- he'd only said Arsene. It reminds her of how Thanatos had ripped himself free of Orpheus to rip the Magician Shadow limb from limb, beating it into little more than an inky pulp.
And the idea of matching Akira's power quirks her eyebrows yet again. Theo had never said anything about there being another guest of the Velvet Room at the same time as her, but there had been his sister, Margaret. Stuff from that realm was hard to remember, a weird kind of space even for Tartarus and the Velvet Room, but... she hums thoughtfully. That's less important, she thinks.]
I didn't think being special was a competition, [she points out simply, tilting her head to gaze at him instead of the sunset.] If you have the potential to awaken a Persona at all, that seems pretty special to me. I don't think anyone is "more special" or "less special" than anyone else. Just different.
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He stays quiet for a while, neutral expression focusing on the sky rather than her. "Just different", that thought of line is exact opposite to his own. He needs to be special, better than everyone else, to be more worthy, even among within the persona users. Being lumped together with the rest of them is no different than being just one fly among the others.
Akira always stood out from the rest of the group because of his natural talent and power. So he needed too. He wouldn't lose to him.]
How do you fuse personas?
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I had a someone who helped me. [She stretches her legs out again and shifts to sit on her heels instead, holding out her hands overtop with fingers splayed.] Using them like tarot cards, he could change them.
[Sure, Igor was the one in charge of that, but Theo is the one she actually likes.]
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It seems like there is still a much that I don't know about Personas.
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[Not an insult, just stating a fact. She shrugs.]
I still don't understand everything about it myself. But you still didn't tell me who your Personas were.
[Not a request, just pointing out that she'd noticed. If he doesn't want to tell her, he doesn't have to! But she's curious.]
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