WEEK 3

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 3

[You dream.

She sits across from you, hairpin shining like fire, her violet eyes staring at you. She slides a cup of tea in front of you, but not before mixing in a dollop of something thick and red like fire into it.

She encourages you to drink. Insists, even. For some reason, you feel compelled to obey. The taste is that of honey. As you sip, she talks.

"I'm sure you think I'm a monster. You wouldn't be wrong."

She sips her own tea.

"I had a family, once. A long time ago. A husband. Children, though not mine. It was acceptable. I was satisfied. Then I found my true calling. I had to leave them behind."

Her cup slowly returns to its sauce.

"They're gone now." A pause. "Replaced. As is the reason I abandoned them. A Counsel of Peace...the dreams of a Messenger...a curious experiment...love itself. Maybe none of it mattered, in the end. Maybe we will not matter, either. Maybe what we are trying to do will fail after all."

"But...I am still here. And you know what they would say about reckonings in the Neath..."




Your eyes open. Something has changed inside you. You remembered something. You look around, dazed, before you stumble out of your room.

You are docked, again. A new week, a new po-wait. The hell is this. Yes, you can see it's called Spatium Prison, but when you think of Victorian era prisons...well, this is not what were expecting. Are you sure that the Conductor-whose name you somehow now remember as Lilac-didn't end up in the wrong universe or something?

...No, sadly. There are the tourists. Well. This is going to be...a week.

Hopefully everyone will survive this one.


There are 13 strangers left in this place.]

Comments

[biddentodance]

'Your' Shadow??

[Personal Shadows weren't a thing in Persona 3, what is this]

I....yeah. Been a Persona-user for nine months. Don't have my Evoker, though...

[telecosmetic]

Yeah...she kind of looked like me, but with golden eyes and a different outfit. [And a lot of blood, actually, but she's not going to get into that too much.] She said...she represented everything I'd kept hidden away. And...I was already denying I'd hid anything, so things were tense for a moment. But...I tried to talk. [Because...because of what? She rubs her forehead, feeling it twinge.]

Evoker? I just had to think about it to summon Baldr. Didn't work when I tried it this morning, though. [Not that she really expected it to-the connection only seemed to work in Valinta.]

[biddentodance]

That's not.... Never heard of Shadows like that. [He swallows, thinking of the one human-looking Shadow he knows. Not right now.]

Yeah.... Evoker. You know-- [He makes a fingergun and taps his index finger to his temple.] --bang? Can't.... Can't summon without one.

[Unless you're Fuuka or Takaya, but that's beside the point.]

[telecosmetic]

[Blink blink.] You-you mean a gun? [Her voice rises a bit at that last part.] N-no. No one in the Velvet Meadow needed that to summon their Persona.

[biddentodance]

Looks like one, yeah. Not....sure it'd work, though, can't feel Thanatos or the others there...

[telecosmetic]

...others?

[biddentodance]

...special ability, called Wild Card. Can change between and use multiple different Personas. Far as I know, I'm the only one.

[telecosmetic]

Oh...yeah, no one else I knew could do that. [She has to wonder what that symbolizes for his internal state, and if it has anything to do with the fact that he might die early.]

[biddentodance]

Versatility... Think Igor said there's around two hundred I can summon? Can only have twelve available at a time, though.

[Because that indicates good things about him. Totally healthy.]

[telecosmetic]

[Um. Yeah. That's Very Concerning!]

It...it doesn't make your head hurt or anything, having so many of them?

[biddentodance]

Not since.... Nah, it doesn't. Not like they're all together. Think of it like a video game, where you can only have a few party members in battle, and the rest of the team is on standby. Except I only have one active at once, not a few.

[telecosmetic]

[She's automatically going to map that onto "Pokemon party," sorry Minato.]

Okay...I guess that would make it easier, right? To be able to handle specific different situations?

[biddentodance]

[I mean Pokemon works, in a standard battle you have only one out at once...]

Right. Can swap pretty freely, but only one's active. Summoning two at once is hard, but doable.

[telecosmetic]

Oh...well, even if you could summon them here, I definitely wouldn't want you to push yourself too hard...

[He seems to get sick so easily. It makes Eliza worry.]

[biddentodance]

[He shrugs.] Taking it easy is kind of a luxury...not used to having time for it.

[telecosmetic]

Well...you can do that here, okay? There's lots of people around to handle things.

[biddentodance]

....Can we really afford to? After-- what happened to Proto Man-san.

[How to keep that from happening again?]

[telecosmetic]

Even if you want to help out...you'll be able to help better if your body's actually rested. [Her voice is soft.]

[biddentodance]

...Spent plenty of time in an energy-draining tower. Tougher than I seem, promise.

[telecosmetic]

[Is that why he faints so easily, she doesn't ask.] ...why were you spending time there?

[biddentodance]

Had to. Had to fight.

[telecosmetic]

Oh...so the energy drain was set up by your enemies to make it harder, or something like that?

[biddentodance]

[Headshake.] Just an effect of being there... Might not have been the tower. Might've just been part of it.