26 November 2009

Tartarus, Lobby

The Dark Hour

Chidori had discovered, much to her annoyance, that she had chosen to sit in a spot that had already been claimed by her friendly nemesis-in-personality. That being sitting on the steps leading up to the first entrance to Tartarus. But it was the only place she could properly bring up her knees and draw. And if that meant sharing conceptual seating space with the crazy Persona user, then that was the price she had to pay.

Midori had come down with the rest of her group from the heights of Tartarus. Even though she was exhausted, she still had energy to give the red-head a hot look that spoke volumes about having her seat stolen.

In the meantime, the leader had replaced his girl entourage with the boy, Koromaru, and the boxer before returning to the upper reaches of this place for further training.

Against her better judgement and desire to work on her art, she found herself putting down her pens and pencils when the Fuuka girl activated her Persona. Helios had inherited many abilities and functions from Medea, even through Junpei's more aggressive influence. And Helios, like Medea, didn't absolutely require an Evoker to function, so she had set it to spying on Juno.

It was gathering interesting information, to say the least. So many different traits. Helios emitted life as a means of checking the region both for the shadows cast by Shadows as well as by Personas and their users. She figured that there were huge differences between her Helios and the far more specialized Juno, differences that meant she didn't feel threatened by anything the lavender-haired girl was capable of.

Her attention was returned to the real world when Fuuka dismissed her Persona and stomped over to Chidori, drawing the attention of everyone else present in the lobby. The two of them matched gazes, though Chidori won easily due to the difference in the power of their egos.

"Don't spy on me." Fuuka finally said quietly, accepting her defeat. "It's rude."

Chidori only huffed. "Can't help it. You broadcast."

Fuuka narrowed her eyes, glanicng at Mitsuru for support against the external interloper. "You do." she agreed instead. "I may not be able to sense much, but I can still tell when you activate Juno, even upstairs."

Chidori, vindicated by the agreement, returned back to her drawings.

5th Block

Minato thought hard as he moved up through the Block of Tartarus. It wasn't the thoughts of combat that filled his head, but of truth and lies. When he gathered everyone up to head back down and switch out teams he had made a quick stop at the Velvet Room.

Igor and Elizabeth had proven to be less than... helpful. He had avoided answering his questions is a very blunt manner, even pointing out that Igor wasn't about to betray the trust of [i]anyone[/i] that came into his domain.

But what he got from that was just more suspicions. Just how much did Midori know, and the source of her knowledge?

The only answer he could come up with was that Midori already knew about Personas when she charged the Hermit those weeks ago. But that raised a whole host of new questions. Were there other people out there fighting in the Dark Hour? Did they have their own versions of Tartarus or Strega to deal with?

He didn't know how to break this subject to her. Not so long after she joined, as much of an effort she had put into helping SEES with her own problems. It made a certain amount of sense, if she was already aware of the stakes involved.

But then again, that asks - again, how she knew in the first place. What had happened?

And his thoughts turned to Tokyo.

27 November 2009

Minatodai Dorm, 4th Floor Meeting Room

Evening

Akihiko walked in, having been summoned by Mitsuru. He found her sitting behind the Chairman's desk, piles of paper and reports in front of her. "I can't help much with the paperwork" he said with a gentle laugh. "Not my strength."

"Oh, I think you can, Akihiko." Her reply showed how much she wasn't liking this turn of events. "I'm throwing stuff out."

"Oh? It's not like you to discard old files. I recall you saying once you liked to keep the old mistakes around to learn from them."

"I wish this were that simple." She groaned. "Minato told you, right?"

"About last night? Yes."

"I'm just going through all the Kirijo Group files, and sorting out those that Midori has proven to be wrong just through her doing things that we thought were impossible."

"You know, I've long since given up on trying to make sense of half the things she does and says." Akihiko took one of the files and saw it was describing how impossible it was for someone to manifest a Persona outside the Dark Hour. "Keep this one?"

"No. Events during the Tokyo Lockdown show that it's possible."

"You know, of all the things she's done, I'm surprised she hasn't done this yet." He flipped through the pages, eyes glossing over at the mathematical and technical explanation for its premise. He then put it off to one side.

"I have a theory about that. During the Lockdown, I accept that people were fighting each other a lot. It occurred to me that Midori only uses Frosty in the Dark Hour to avoid situations where she would be tempted to use him against other people; a form of mental self control."

"I'm sorry. You're implying that Midori of all people wouldn't jump on the chance to be special like that?"

"Yes. For all her outward actions, I believe she is a very intelligent, very capable young woman who is well aware of the consequences of her actions, either through experience or through preparation." Mitsuru tossed another file to the side, this time into a smaller pile that seemed to be the keepers.

Akihiko shook his head. "I think we're talking about two different people then."

"Minor case of dissociative identity?" Mitsuru missed the point of the comment entirely. "No, her acting skills are good enough. I've been watching her broadcasts."

"It must be hard. Having so much work by your father and your company get tossed out like this due to the ignorant achievements of one girl."

"No." Mitsuru accepted the damning praise with grace. "It just goes to show that we can't learn everything by staying in the lab. We have to get out into the real world to put out knowledge into practice, and to find the real limits. Or to exceed them." Another file into the stack to be taken away. "Although the worst part is that she's not even aware of all this."

"You could always summon her to help out."

"And risk her getting into the files? No thank you."

29 November 2009

Minatodai Dormitory, 3rd Floor Sitting area

Afternoon

Chidori came back from the ladies room to find Yukari weeping over her precious drawings.

"Give them back!" she snapped, rushing over to snatch the papers from the young girl's hands before she ruined them. "They're not yours!" The hiss was angry and full of spite. How dare she sully her pictures?

"You!" Yukari let Chidori take back what was hers without much opposition. She looked up at the white-dressed woman, emotion meeting stoicism. "Why are you doing so many pictures of him?"

Chidori slapped Yukari. It was a sudden thing, the red mark on Yukari's face. "NEVER! Never question that!"

Yukari sat there, stunned as Chidori roughly gathered up the rest of her materials and stormed off to her room.

Aigis at this point, poked her head out of her room, and saw the still Yukari. Realizing that this was something that would severely hamper team dynamics in the future, she slid out and moved towards Yukari. Placing one hand on her shoulder, Aigis now found herself without any frame of reference to advance with. This sort of thing was something Minato was far better at.

"What is wrong?"

"Wrong? Everything! Junpei's gone, that girl is here, and everything!" Yukari slid over to allow Aigis to sit. "You understand, don't you?"

Protocol prevented her from lying. "I do not."

Yukari looked at Aigis with disbelief on her face. At this, Aigis felt compelled to elaborate. "I am a machine. I do not understand what it means to be 'alive'."

"You... But I thought... the Persona required something like that?" Yukari sniffed as she tried to understand.

"That is not correct. What is required is a sense of self. I am Aigis. There is no other like me, not even any of my sisters can claim that they are me." She knew she was skirting the edge of what she was allowed to say, but felt it was justified for the goal of returning harmony to SEES.

"Then if you aren't alive..."

"I cannot understand 'death'. On an intellectual level, I know what it entails. But as I 'function', rather than 'live', I can always be repaired. I do not fear death like you do, and as such, I cannot understand what it is."

"Why tell me this?"

"Because if I cannot understand, how can I be your friend? I am a machine, I cannot die, yet without this, am I not missing something vital?"

Chidori spoke up from behind them, unnoticed. "Then come to the room I occupy."

Yukari started, and Aigis spun around to determine how Chidori had done that. What she saw was that the former Strega member had wiped off the makeup she usually wore and had removed the headdress. Evaluating what she saw, she had to determine that Chidori looked...

Normal.

"What do you want?" Yukari asked, also taking in the small transformation.

"To show the tin-girl here what death means." Chidori spun on her toes and walked back to her room without another word.

"I think we should see what she wants." Aigis partially lifted Yukari up and led her down the hall to Chidori's room. The door was unlocked and they entered.

Chidori's room was empty. No, that wasn't the right word. It had a bed with sheets, a closet with her few clothes, and Junpei's hat sitting on the bare desk.

But the walls were covered in drawings. A massive amount of sketches showing everything from plants and flowers to scenes of life around the city.

But what was mostly there was Junpei. Face and headshots, him smiling, looking serious, and all the expressions and poses between. On any other day, this would have been a creepy stalker's monument, but here? It was memory made manifest.

"Death is loss, Aigis. Only when you lose something that can never be replaced can you understand death. And only when you hold on to that which will be lost can you understand life."

30 November 2009

SEES Dormitory, Entrance

Evening

"You're going shopping without me!?" Midori nearly screeched, causing Minato and Ryoji to wince in pain. Minato had finally convinced the newest student to come over to the dorm again, and apparently Aigis had taken that time to announce that she was taking Chidori out to get new clothes, her current selection consisting of the one dress. Yukari had announced she was going with them, and invited Mitsuru as well.

This left Midori being the single girl out.

"Look," Yukari said as she pulled on her jacket due to the declining weather, "Aigis is going for security, Chidori has to, Mitsuru has the money, and I'm the fashion consultant."

"You think you know fashion better than me?" Midori was incredulous.

"Well, in so much as store fashions meant for wearing day to day, and not the costumes you two cook up – that I'll leave to you." She leaned in to whisper in Midori's ear. "Besides, this is a me thing. I've been wrong to blame her for Junpei's death. I still hate her, but I can't blame her. This is me trying to be the better person, and I don't need you there."

Midori understood. "You want me to clean up her room while you're out?"

Yukari shook her head. "No need. We'll be back before midnight."

Mitsuru walked by. "Actually, you are to study. Your grades have been slipping since the midterms, and I want you to raise them."

"Five lousy percent! On Math! That's it!" Midori objected hard at the implications. Mitsuru levelled her commanding gaze at Midori, who in turn shrunk back. "Yes, Senpai" Defeated, she went back to her room, though once she was out of sight, she broke into a huge grin at the start of the slow process of rebuilding friendships.