You Find Yourselves Stirred By A Voice....

[strangerpeople]

[You feel as you are on a fluffy cloud of warmth and the urge to not want to move is great. However, the voice speaks again as if it is urgent...and maybe angry?]

Damn brats! Get off the merchandise before I call security on you!

[Oh. Well.

When you come to, the familiar scenes of your bedrooms fill your sight. However, the barriers are gone and strangest of all, there are people around. They can SEE you and for sure, they are gawking at the weirdos that are somehow sleeping in department store beds. But on the hands of Croix and Chariot, there's something on their hands...a phone number and a message saying 'Call me! :D' from some weird girl with an A name. But when you finally move and get away from any nosy customers, you have to wonder 'What just happened?' 'Is everyone ok?'

And why do you have the urge to go visit Cafe MYJL?]

Comments

[ourmagic]

"Phaidoari Afairynghor". You don't get the things you dream of, you get the things you work for. And I would work quite hard at it, I'll have you know.

[ It makes her... so happy, to see him like this. It's like day and night, practically. ]

I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you more... it feels like it's been ages. I felt like I wanted to say so many things, but now that you're here, all I have is... relief.

[foolishjustice]

What you did say was enough. I'd be very different right now, without all of the support everyone gave me.

[ourmagic]

... I'm glad. I just... I didn't want you to ever feel alone, or like you didn't have an affect. I don't think I've met anyone with quite the smarts or leadership abilities you portray. I was serious when I compared you to one of the students I know. Diana? It turns out she helped save our world.

And I think I'm going to stick to that comparison.

[ She smiles. ]

Because it's clear to me you've grown so much since I last saw you.

Vague P5 spoilers

[foolishjustice]

[Stop, you're making him blush!]

We'll...see how well I can do in matching that achievement. It sounds like I still have a lot to deal with back home, after I stop Shido from taking over. But if what Akira said also applies to my timeline, it's going to be very satisfying.

[ourmagic]

[ SHE WILL NEVER STOP! ]

I think you can do it. Although, Goro... I have to ask... did you get offered a deal like we did?

[foolishjustice]

Yes. We were given the choice to come back to live as we were before, or to become Reapers and, once we get home, Composers.

[ourmagic]

... I kind of thought so.

[ So they took it. ]

I'm guessing you took that choice? Won't that affect you adversely?

[foolishjustice]

Not really. Aside from the powers and responsibilities, it's not very different from being alive. I can shift between the Realground and Underground at will now, so it shouldn't even affect my daily life much.

[ourmagic]

...

[ She laughs. ]

... I'm sorry. You just sound so professional, already... I don't even know what I'm doing. I just know I want to stop the guy causing all this...

[foolishjustice]

I do have a lot of experience at professionalism.

Ah, by the way. The ones of us who agreed to this will still be able to come along and help. Our new powers might even be useful.

[ourmagic]

I'm glad, then. We could certainly use the help.

... Hopefully we get better, um... Psyches? Than we had before. To fight him. Mine wasn't as useful as I would have liked.

[foolishjustice]

...I'm not sure, actually. I still haven't tried to use other Pins.

But if the Metaverse exists wherever we find him, I think I can give us a bit of an advantage.

[ourmagic]

If we could bring him to my world, Croix and I's magic might be able to be tuned to be similar to the way the Psyches work. It runs off a very similar system.

[foolishjustice]

Personas are fairly similar, too. It seems like they both fall under the category of psychic abilities, and Noise don't seem too fundamentally different from Shadows...

[He'd love to study both and find out just how similar or different they are, honestly. Maybe his new powers will make studying Noise easier...?]

[theirmagic]

Hmm... you guys never did explain to me what it is you fight. Could you go more into detail?

[ She's curious. ]

And I assume since you all played the actual Reaper's Game, you saw the Noise firsthand, then? More than just a giant bird? ... Uh, you all weren't... watching us fight, were you?

1/2

[foolishjustice]

We were, sorry. It wasn't easy avoiding drawing her anger by interfering. But yes, we've seen a lot of Noise...including the ones that attacked all of you after they showed images of the threats back in our world.

As for Shadows...

Nerd Mode: Activate

[foolishjustice]

[His entire face brightens up, the way Chariot's would if someone asked her to go into detail about astrology.]

They're manifestations of the thoughts and emotions that people keep hidden from the world. They come in two categories, which behave very differently both in terms of actual interaction with them and what happens when you do things that influence them.

Generic Shadows don't belong to any one specific person, and my theory about them is that they represent a sort of ambient emotion, repressed desires of society as a whole. They usually take forms similar to figures from mythology or pop culture, images common in public cognition. They're generally aggressively territorial and will attack any human they see, unless they're clearly outmatched. They can be negotiated with, though, if you can put them in a disadvantaged position. Otherwise, nothing you do to them has any impact. All identical Shadows seem to share a common memory and personality, since I've destroyed one and had another recognize me and act the same way the first did when intimidated...or aggravated.

Personal Shadows are...different in a lot of ways. They're the unique manifestation of an individual's hidden thoughts and desires, and generally look like how that person views themselves. Their behavior varies heavily depending on the kind of person they come from, but one common trait is that they all want people to know about them. You can learn a lot about a person's secrets by talking to their Shadow, it's actually part of how I've been so successful as a detective...but it can be dangerous. Not only do you have to be careful of generic Shadows, which can be commanded by a powerful enough individual Shadow, but the latter transforms into a monstrous creature symbolic of its true nature if angered or threatened. These Shadows are much more powerful than anything else in the area, and often have unique or uncommon abilities. Interacting with them can have effects on the person they spawned from, ranging from subtle behavioral differences from changes in the Shadow's mood to...

[His expression falls at this point, and he glances away in guilt.]

A complete loss of motivation for even basic functions like eating, if the Shadow is destroyed.