1st Bus Stop | Introduction

[busstopsign]

Characters: Shinjiro and anyone who want to bump and talk to him and probably try to kill him if your name is Ken.
Location: All the floors, he'll be moving around to explore, feel free to bump into him wherever you want.
Format: Pick your poison, I'll match in suite.
Summary: A dude wakes up and wonders where the hell he is.
Warnings: Shinjiro has a potty mouth. Also probably some violence.

He shouldn't be here. That's the first thing he told himself upon waking up. Just a few minutes ago, he was off to fight the rest of his friends for the right to wield the keys, and now his first thought was that either he had never actually awoken from his hospital bed before, or that he had failed. Regardless it did not bode well.

Of course the letters pretty much confirmed his fears. Maybe this was some sort of personal hell, or maybe the keys had malfunctioned and he had ended up here. There was no way the way had ended after Minako had worked so hard to protect it from Nyx. Regardless, even if he didn't quite believe what he was told, he needed to look around and see what this place was like. Without Aigis, Metis, Aki or the others...strange how he didn't mind being along not just a few months ago, but now...

He picked up a few items from his trunk, idly remembering that the bus stop sign would require work before he could actually use it. For now the large golden hammer could be useful, as was the Evoker. Stepping into any area could be dangerous, and Shinjiro was borderline paranoid by trade. As 'nice' as that letter had been, he didn't want to be caught unguarded.

He stepped out of room 2-02, looking around before slipping into the shadows and darker corners. He operated better that way.

Comments

[miseris_socios]

[Ken is wandering the halls, trying to decide what to do now. It's a while before he feels like going to bed, but he doesn't want to just sit around. So moving around it is - maybe he'll catch sight of some monsters he can train against.]

[... And then he spots him sliding into the shadows. He's here. Ken runs towards him, pulling his Evoker out of its holster.]

Stop right there!

Commence Trainwreck

[busstopsign]

[The sight of Ken actually makes Shinji happy except you know, pocket face. Maybe the tower 'saved' all of them, they just have to find each other?]

Tch. Fine, I'll wait but move faster. Any see any sign of the others?

[miseris_socios]

'Others'? You mean my group or yours? The only one from SEES that I know is here is your stupid leader.

[He catches up, tightening his grip on his Evoker.]

And she's not gonna save you. And he's not here to mess it up.

[busstopsign]

[Something's wrong. That's not the Ken he knows - who, even if they had hardships and he knew that it would never be an easy road - at least understood each other a little more.

In this Ken, there's too much anger his the eyes. But what does he mean, 'my group or yours?'. Didn't he agree with him regarding Minako's fate? Why is he naming Sees like its own separate organization? But most importantly...why the hell is he calling Minako a stupid leader? Immediately, the nice-guy-at-least-for-Shinjiro act stops and he glares at him, his voice a little lower.]

What do you mean...

[His hand is already tightened around his own Evoker, as he mentally switches Personas.]

Don't make me do this Ken. Something's wrong with you.

[miseris_socios]

Nothing's wrong with me. The only thing that's wrong here is that you're not dead and back home Takaya got to you before I could!

[Ken's features are twisted in anger, and his hand is shaking on his Evoker. He puts his Evoker to his head and fires, Nemesis rising above him and sending off a Zionga at Shinji.]

One two three four: I DECLARE AN ANGST WAR!!!

[fracta_anima]

Minami had only one headphone on her ear, the other dangling over her shoulder blaring a catchy techno pop song as she carried what must have been the fifteenth box of clothing downstairs to the media floor for people to pick up. Sure, when she'd requested for clothing for Coleta she figured she'd get some eventually, but not enough to block the door to her dorm.

As soon as she saw it she had immediately set about picking out things for herself and laying it out on her bed. Hey, she wasn't super into lolita fashion, but new clothes were new clothes and she was sure she could find someone to take the excess lace off of the things. In the meantime, she needed to clear out the boxes in front of her room before she found out her roommates were trapped or they needed to get in.

Thus occupied--who knew clothes could be so darn heavy?--she walked right by Shinjiro, only noting she was just passing someone who looked vaguely familiar by.

All the trainwrecks.

[busstopsign]

Shinjiro was no fool. The solution suggested by Metis could have not worked, and he knew that.

Yet when he saw Minami, he cannot help but have a double take, starring at her while his heart skips a beat. The 'red hair fool' that Ken mentioned. It's too early for his mind to grasp all the facts perfectly - he doesn't know that if he looks a little longer, she's actually younger than the one he knows. Right now he focuses on is her hair, the earphones and the music...it's almost too welcoming.

Maybe he was dreaming. It was impossible for him not to stare, to want to run towards her and give him a hug, but something was pulling at him. Orpheus? He didn't know why, but something was wrong. So he stayed there, unmoving, only uttering one word.

"Minako..."

The trainwrecks, the car wrecks, AND the shipwrecks. (Pun intended)

[fracta_anima]

Minami would've probably kept right on going if the song hadn't ended right then. Just in time to hear a familiar voice utter a name that was not hers but she's heard others like her have. The voice itself sends a shock through her that makes her forget that it's not her name. He rarely called her by name, after all, and in her forced peppier days she'd follow him and Akihiko around telling them in that "moe" falsetto she tended to fall into back then saying "Mi-chan! All my friends call me Mi-chan! Why won't you?!"

It can't be real. It just can't. Her heart is already pounding wildly in her chest, all the things she had wished she'd said to him when she saw him lying in that puddle of blood and Minato--her brother--and Ken standing above it and--

Minami drops the box--barely misses crushing her toes--and turns and.... and there he is. Her mind blanks out completely at the sight of him standing there looking healthy and healed and whole. The crush came to the fore of her heart, but she squashed it down. She needed to prove herself to him first. That's what she'd decided. She wanted him to see her as an equal and not a rookie kid and.... and....

Oh, who cares? She's tearing up, can't even bother to stop it. Before she can even process this, process that it might not be him, that it could be someone from another world, that he had not said her name, she sobs. And runs to him. Who cares how he felt about it? She was giving him a godsbedamned hug. Even she thought she deserved one after the hell she'd been through.

All aboard the SS Terrible Things Happening

[busstopsign]

"Shit!" he says a little too loudly and almost automatically when she drops the box. "You idiot! You're gonna hurt yoursel-"

There was a reason Shinji didn't like seeing Minako, and Minami by extension, cry and asked her to laugh and smile when she could. Deep inside him, there was a part that was devastated when it happened, seeing the strong leader become broken and something and that just made him want to punch a wall and somehow try to make it better. But what if the problem happened to be him? Regardless, she always tended to move things along anyway, and he didn't protest when he felt her touch him. It was...even if it had been a few months since Minako had fought Nyx, the memories of their last farewell were still strong in his mind and it came back surging full force. All the dreams he had had of her since then too...

In fact, Minami was probably not expecting him to tightening the hug instead of pushing it away like he might have done before. He gently put in a hand in her hair to touch it. Making sure it was real and not a dream. Yet something kept nagging at him...maybe it was the way she was crying? It was the same and yet...not quite. Maybe it was just his imagination, or his memories getting fuzzy.

"Is it really you..."

HARK! An iceberg dead ahead!

[fracta_anima]

Which would've been a major difference, as Minami normally didn't like to let people see her cry. She was the leader, she needed to be the strong one, the pillar, the one everyone could rely on. Doubly so since she was the youngest in SEES. People thought she wore her heart on her sleeve, but really? She was just too used to forcing it.

Here, by herself, she let herself go weak. Tried to move beyond that mask she wore and the hurt and everything else. Some days she's successful, others she's not. It's something she has to do one day at a time to survive in this place.

And--whoa. Why did Shinjiro hug her so tight? Had he been here longer than she thought and only ran into each other now? If so she needs to be more thorough in her rounds. Who knows who else she could've missed if she wasn't.

Besides, there was a more pressing matter at hand, other than Shinjiro slowly realizing Minami is a bit shorter, a bit less filled out than Minako, that she has a face still clinging to some baby fat, and her hair may or may not be a slightly different shade of red. Her voice is also a higher pitch when she speaks, the forced falsetto coming in more as a joke than anything, but also because he's holding her so tight her muscles are beginning to ache.

"D-duh! Hey, you mind? You're kind of crushing my ribs here, sempai!"

I'm not angst I'm just awkward

[morituramfides]

Nope, you're not getting out that fast Shinjiro-- because around the time he was getting ready to leave, Jin was returning to his room, only to find a new and rather familiar inhabitant in it.

"Aragaki?" How. Are you alive. He is looking so confused right now. "The hell?"

WHAT HOw come there is no hot makeouts.

[busstopsign]

Oh. Oh. Well Jin wasn't exactly on Shinjiro's list of people he'd thought he might run into again, truth be told. He'd heard the story from the other members of the team about how he had died in the tower by blowing himself up when the Shadows overwhelmed him...

And yet the Jin standing before him did not look blown up at all. He had thought his days dealing with Strega were over. Maybe this was some sort of trick...

"The hell are you doing here," he snapped right back at him.

Aw hell nah go get that from your stupid redhead girlfriend

[morituramfides]

Ok well. It was definitely Shinjiro. His retort, while expected, was still a offputting. And plus he's still horribly confused, so it shows.

"I could ask you the same question," He replied snippily, lazily pointing at him with his left hand. "I've been here for a few months, but last I checked, you were dead."

But she'd not like you ~~oh Jin oh~~~

[busstopsign]

Well that cleared up everything--oh wait no it didn't. Jin's confusion was soon explained when he mentioned he should be dead. Perhaps they'd never heard of his hospitalization, and assumed he had died. Then again, that wouldn't explain why he was here. And five months? ...maybe those keys had really messed up the entire time stream and...shit. That type of technological and magical field was definitely not up his alley. Well, if Jin wanted to use bombs, he'd give him one right back.

"I could say the same about you. Heard you blew yourself up in the tower."

Sorry he's married to the internet

[morituramfides]

"Huh?" Blew himself up? In Tartarus? What the hell was this guy going on about, had he had some kind of pre-death fervor dream because of Takaya and the Dark Hour?

"Why the hell would I do that?" He asked, lowering his hand and giving an expectant shrug with both arms.

[evokingfool]

[Minato stops when he see someone familiar in the hallways. Shinjiro Aragaki, his senpai.

He would call out for him, but then he wonders. Does this Shinjiro knows him, or Minako? Minami?]

...Shinjiro-senpai?

[A boy with the SEES armband called out, in an almost testing voice.]

[busstopsign]

[Shinjiro stops likewise and stares at him. The SEES armband is impossible to miss, but he doesn't recognize him. The talk with Jin as made him convinced there are strange things going on with the timeline, but hearing and then seeing are completely different thing. Especially since this guy knows his name...]

I don't know you.

[He's too the point, but he's not too crass about it. Just blunt. He adjusts his own SEES armband.]

Wanna explain that? I doubt they had Persona users just waiting in the sidelines that no one told me about.

[evokingfool]

[He doesn't know him. That means Shinjiro's from Minako's world. Or Minami's...but she told him he died in her world.]

...I'm from a world where I'm the leader of SEES. You're probably familiar with girl named Arisato.

[busstopsign]

[It hits exactly where Shinjiro's doubts were. It explains Ken's reaction and Jin denying events. He had a feeling Junpei wouldn't have lied about anything regarding Strega and it makes much more sense now. When he thinks about it, Minato does remind him of Minako. Not exactly at first glance, but the way he handles himself, and his body language. It's not outgoing like Minako is, but the voice does have its own weight as well.

He can see his team following him.]

Yeah I know her.

[He looks away before speaking again.]

...shit. So it's not just time that's messed up here, now you're telling me everyone's from different worlds too.

[evokingfool]

That's right. And this tower can even bring in multiples of the same person.

[So, yeah, about that--]

So you may see another "me" around...he's from the leader of Strega in his world.

[It's an important thing to point out. They may have their differences in opinion and how they speak, but they do look the same.]

TIME TO START THE FURTHER CONFUSION

[fractus_animus]

[ Of all the people to run into, Minato has to pause and stare when he sees Shinjiro. He's no idiot, he can detect someone trying to be sneaky purely because it's what his business RUNS on, stealth. So he not-so-silently approaches him, curious, headphones left hanging, but still playing music. ]

... Shouldn't you be dead?

[ Oh well, whatever. He's in SEES. Instant hate. On the other hand--Minami... bah. Complicated situation that it is, he keeps his hands on his Evoker, leaving Samael at the forefront of his mind, rather than Thanatos.

Too risky. ]

Actually, I think I might have a better question: you haven't run into Ken yet, have you?

Hell yeah.

[busstopsign]

[By the time he sees this second Minato, Shinjiro is a bit more mentally prepared than before. Not enough to avoid the shock of seeing Minato again, only this time with no armband.]

Tch. I got better.

[At least in his world he did. Everyone saying he was dead made him think that, in the end, Minako's actions really were the only thing that had saved her life. It only reinforced his resolution to find her, but for now, there was business to attend too. There were some questions he wanted answered for and if he was anything like his SEES counterpart, at least he might provide him with a few more answers. Shinjiro's hand is on his own Evoker in his pocket, ready to pull it out at any moment. In a way, it was an advantage his coat provided.]

So your the Strega leader Jin told me about.

[It really is like looking into the other Minato's double. Was their Strega really being led by this guy?]

Yeah I ran into him.

[The fact Shinjiro was still alive probably told Minato of the things he might want to know. He ends up waking a few more steps to be his usual lovely intimating self.]

I don't know what the hell convinced him in your world to join Strega instead of SEES and taking Koromaru with him, but either one gets harmed and I'll kick your ass, got it?

[Wasn't he going to ask him so questions, OH RIGHT first step - be intimidating.]

[fractus_animus]

... Yeah, I am.

[ You aren't the only one wearing a badass longcoat, mister. Minato wears one just to conceal his gun and his Evoker at all times, and sometimes even smuggle his sword in if necessary, so he knows well to be on guard.

Except, the problem with being intimidated is that it has to, you know. Intimidate people. Minato cants his head to the side a little, and blinks, but then just... kind of gives him an icy expression of utter loathing on his own. Fucking SEES and their self-entitled bullshit-- ]

... Is that what you think happened? He just 'ran off' and joined us, like we corrupted him or something? Please. Don't act like such an entitled hero.

[busstopsign]

[Don't use the H-word on him, Minato, he hates that. In fact he just scoffs annoyingly at the term, looking down on a floor for a second.]

Tch. I ain't no damn hero. I didn't say neither of those things either. We're obviously from different worlds and like hell if I know what happened in yours. I don't care either, it's already obvious they didn't turn out the same.

You get it, don't you? I'm just giving you a warning to make sure neither gets harmed. That's all.

[Now it's his turn to ask some questions.]

You come from the same world as the Jin in my room, right? He mentioned Takaya wasn't part of Strega anymore.

[fractus_animus]

[ He will use the H-word all he wants because it's EXACTLY like what he thinks you all are. Self-entitled people who think they're 'heroes' saving the ~world~. ]

Yeah, I am. Someone's done his homework, at least--do you want extra credit?

[ He's being highly sarcastic, of course, but at the moment, he figures he might as well clear this up. His face forms a small frown when Takaya is mentioned, though--there's obvious bad blood between them. ]

... I'm guessing this runs a little deeper than either of us are thinking. Sakaki hasn't been part of our group for awhile now.

[ Last name, and it's said disdainfully because he's still hurt by what Takaya did and he's never going to forgive him. ]

Ken didn't run off to anyone; we found him one night trying to beat off shadows with a lead pipe. Chidori sensed a Persona user, and we went to investigate. I mean, he was in the same position we were. So we helped him. ... That's all. Same thing with Koromaru. He was injured, we found him fighting a Shadow, and Chidori healed him. I'll forgive you for thinking I'd ever let anything happen to one of my own, but whatever.

Glad to see he didn't kill you... I guess. He's in a pretty bad spot right now, Ken. I guess I need to talk to him alone again...

[ Sigh. Oh, Ken, what was he going to do with you? :c ]