Daichi: Always more time for the most messed-up world I've created, right?

Verity: Embers.

Daichi: ...Fair point.

BlackGatomon: Don't own things, we just mix it up until it becomes something interesting.

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Sho had been scared when his new 'roommate' first showed up. Persona-using split personality or not, Shadows were dangerous creatures, and there was no telling just how strong one was, which was a problem when they were hardcoded to be hostile.

….Or, he'd thought they were. Clearly they were wrong, because the cute little blob with the starry mask was the best friend he'd ever had, not that that was saying much.

'We're right here, you know,' Minazuki pointed out, Tsukiyomi giving a murmur of agreement.

'That's different. The two of you are practically family.' The only family he really had. Which, given that they were basically himself, was really sad.

The Shadow nudged his hand. "Sorry," He muttered, out loud this time. "You know food doesn't come for another hour."

It was the solid schedule, and the little ice elemental beside him, that kept the trio relatively sane. Very relative- they knew they were messed up- but it was better than they would have otherwise. Small constants, that made the constant confinement that made up their world bearable.

"Do you think we can get out?" His friend asked. The little Shadow had started to mimic human speech a week after their introduction. Well, what they called an introduction, anyway. It was more them cringing away from each other until they both realized the other didn't really want to hurt them.

"Not today," He muttered. "But soon."

That was a lie. They both knew that escape wouldn't come for quite some time. Minazuki didn't have the strength to summon his Persona, nor could the Shadow use his magic, because they didn't eat enough food. And, being at the bottom of a secret lab, Sho didn't see that ever changing.

Leaning back, he closed his eyes for a moment- just for a moment!- and opened them someplace else, where he couldn't feel Minazuki or Tsukiyomi.

"Well, this is a surprise," The man in front of him chuckled. "I must say, I never expected to see you here… let alone now. Welcome… to the Velvet Room."

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"I think we've been doing this for too long," Minako stated, her face firmly planted in the table before her.

"What makes you think that?" Her boyfriend asked.

"Well… you know how things have been slowly changing, right? And it's been speeding up recently?"

"...How bad is it?"

"Ken Amada has joined SEES." That in and of itself wasn't too much of a surprise- it was easy to arrange, compared to some of the more ridiculous attempts. "Because of Taraki. And he can use lightning without summoning Nemesis. And turn into an electric mouse. And has a pet grass snake. The elemental kind."

"There's an elemental grass snake?"

"Apparently. I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be too late to just hop the next plane out of the country. I've heard Sweden is nice this time of year."

"It can't be that bad-"

"According to Igor, Ikutsuki is keeping another Wild Card in his basement. And is now possessed. And has somehow located a Shadow of an Arcana beyond Death. And he's not even sure how much of this is new."

"...You realize, if you move, they'll still fight the Arcana Shadows."

"I know… This had better be the last one, because otherwise… the apocalypse is starting to look far too appealing."

It wasn't. Not really. They'd been through this year too many times to give up on it now. But honestly, all she wanted to do was live to her high school graduation. Was that really too much to ask?

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Satoko hated nights when they didn't go to Tartarus. Sure, they were currently blocked from progressing any higher, but fighting Shadows was a much better use of her time than lying awake because the Dark Hour's auras felt too much like the Voidlands.

The worst part, of course, was that she was the only one with those problems. She could sense Minako in the room across, with her assemblage of Personas, and Ken directly below, along with the distinct signatures of Meiko and Nemesis.

'You don't have to let your powers control you like this,' Anubis advised her, seemingly ignoring the fact that she even thought in the Pokemon language.

'Didn't you say death gods don't play nice?' She thought back. 'I'm not entirely sure you have any room to talk here.'

There was a soft growl in the back of her head that wasn't meant to communicate anything, and then blessed silence. Which left her mind free to do other things.

First, she opened a notebook which contained information on all the Shadows she'd come across. Or, well, she said that's what it was. Nobody that was purely human would be able to tell, after all, when she found their language so difficult to write in.

Most would be satisfied with learning about the creatures' affinities. Or, in the case of the obscenely rare golden hands, how much money one could get from killing them.

Satoko was a bit more ambitious than that. She kept track of everything she could, including what she could remember about Dark Matter and the Void Shadows. Because they were, of course, the same thing, but expressed differently. Which brought up some interesting questions.

Dark Matter had not been destroyed the way the lesser Shadows had. To Satoko's knowledge, such a thing would have been impossible without destroying free will.

Instead, it had been accepted, and vanished in blue light, the same way as a… as a dismissed Persona. And when she and Souji had attempted to summon Minako's Personas, they had gotten some fairly powerful, if benign, Shadows.

The implications… suddenly, finding out whatever the older students were hiding had become much more important.

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Daichi: You may now imagine your Super Mystery Dungeon partner summoning Dark Matter as their Persona. You're welcome.