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

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.

Well the internet IS for porn.

[busstopsign]

Normally, this would be the part the old Shinjiro would have just turned around and ignored him to leave him and his confusion, but he needed to know more about this place, and the fact he had a five month advantage meant they could at least talk, if anything.

"From what Junpei told me, you and Takaya started the cult of Nyx and were hell-bent on stopping the others from reaching the top to stop it." He gave him a counter-shrug in return. "They beat you up, and you got overwhelmed by shadows."

But porn doesn't have sexy sexy coding

[morituramfides]

Jin's basically looking at Shinjiro like he has spontaneously grown a third head. Did Shinjiro and SEES think that Takaya was still one of their members? Then again was there really any way for them to have known he was a member even originally?

"Takaya and I haven't done nothing. I haven't even seen him in forever, even before I showed up at this dumb place. And I sure haven't been part of any cult movement."

Hell bent on stopping them from messing with Tartarus though? Accurate. Getting beaten up and overwhelmed by shadows? Hell no.

OH GOD JUST MARRY YOUR LINUX THEN.

[busstopsign]

Well this Shinjiro most certainly did think all of those things were truthful. He also appeared to be thinking a little more clearly than Jin, perhaps due to his experience in the Abyss of Time. Maybe the timeline has not only been hit hard - maybe it changed events as well. There was only one way to find out.

"...Tch. Just tell me how I died."

FINE MAYBE HE WILL.

[morituramfides]

Wow, rude Shinjiro. Jin rolled his eyes ever so slightly and crossed his arms, stepping inside the room properly and closing it with with his foot.

"From what I heard, Takaya showed up in Tatsumi Port and shot you down while you were trying to protect Ken. I wasn't there myself, so I can't really give you the details."

[busstopsign]

That sounded familiar, at least. Maybe he hadn't heard that he had survived from that gunshot. Yet that opened up even more questions, such as how it still didn't explain why he had mentioned Takaya like a past memory.

"So far, it sounds the same," he began, "but you leaving Strega? I can't believe that. In the end if was just you and Takaya up there." There. Now he gave out his own information. And just to drive a point home; "You both failed. She managed to stop Nyx, and it saved the world."

At a heavy cost he only wish she never had to pay.

[morituramfides]

Jin just quirked an eyebrow at that; all this nonsense about Nyx or whatever certainly wasn't driving home. To him, he was just speaking gibberish. Sorry Shinjiro, it probably didn't bomb him as much as you were hoping for.

"Are you an idiot? I didn't leave Strega. They're the only ones that I can actually trust. And I sure as hell ain't going up to the top of Tartarus with Takaya though-- and definitely not without the others. Like I said, I haven't seen him in forever."

[busstopsign]

Nothing made sense.

"Tch, you're the idiot, dumbass. I don't know if you noticed, but we both have different stories and we're both pretty set on knowing them as Truth, even if they don't seem to add up." Although from what he said...

"Tell me who you mean by the others. From the time I'm from, Chidori's memories with Strega were wiped out when she used what little remaining powers she had left to revive herself after her death, which only left you and Takaya to start that cult." Pfft details about what he meant exactly, who needed that?

[morituramfides]

"Chidori-- Forgot us?!" He uncrossed his arms and jumped a little in surprise. Oh no no no what? Sorry Shinjiro, it's time to slow your roll, because Jin is not taking very kindly to this news at all.

"Revive herself, why would she--" A sigh. "Look. I don't know what Truth you know, but I really haven't seen Takaya in a long time. By 'others,'" And he eve used little air quotes there, see. "I mean Chidori, Minato, and Ken. And I guess Koromaru if you wanna count the dog. And we don't have any intention of starting a cult."

[busstopsign]

Minato didn't ring a bell at all. When Shinji heard his name, he brushed it off...until Ken and Koromaru were mentioned. The hell? He couldn't see either of them joining Strega any time soon. Even in all his anger, he had a feeling Ken would not go running to the organization that killed Shinji.

Suddenly, he got a lot more threatening and invading of personal space.

"Why would Ken join Strega," he growled dangerously. "And don't you ever call Koromaru, just a dog again. He's an important member to SEES like everyone else. Including Ken."

He might have sounded a tad possessive.

He definitely was.

[morituramfides]

Suddenly hostile and possessive? Well that was even more off-putting. He simply stared over the edge of his glasses, and spoke calmly. "Calm down, Aragaki. All I said was that he was a dog." A small sigh. Geez, everyone gets sensitive over the dog, he can hardly bring the mutt up without Ken glaring at him!

"We found the kid in an alleyway one night fighting some Shadows. Minato took pity on him, so we rescued him and took him with us. He's been around ever since." And here, he let out a scoff. "And definitely not with SEES. I didn't know you were so defensive of them."

[busstopsign]

Koromaru was important to Shinji, okay, even if he wouldn't admit it that much. You never called him dog, just like you didn't call someone a human. He continued to stare back for a few seconds before dropping it.

"Whatever. We make a good team. I'm didn't ask your opinion on how I feel about them."

That was something a Shinjiro Jin knew would never had said or admitted so freely. He had given out information in exchange for pills once. Obviously something had happened.

"I have no idea in hell who your Minato is. Lemme take a guess, they Strega, now that Takaya left." It was nothing more than a deduction on his part. "Can't see the three of you rescuing anyone either."

[morituramfides]

Yeah, that even garnered a bit of a chuckle from Jin. Not really condescending per say, but the fact that he was amused by Shinjiro's enthusiasm for his team was probably insulting enough. "You're gung ho about being a part of the team now?" Well if THAT didn't indicate a different in timelines, then nothing did.

"Bingo. Although in our case he was always sort of the leader." Takaya was much more an in-the-shadows guy anyway. At the second part though, he shrugged. "We found a persona-user that wasn't part of SEES getting his ass kicked. Not that hard to make the jump."

[busstopsign]

Yeah keep it up with the laughing at his enthusiasm and you'd be laughing with his fist in your face. He completely ignored that question, and just focused on what he said next, frowning.

"Tch. That makes no damn sense from the Strega I knew. Ken and Koromaru were always part of SEES." Hell, Ken was the reason Shinjiro returned, however temporarily, in the first place. "You better not be pulling my leg with all of this bullshit."

[morituramfides]

You give him a fist to the face, he will give you a bomb to your intestines. It's on, hobo man.

"Why would I pull your leg about stuff like that? The Ken know dislikes SEES just as much of the rest of us." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, glaring at Shinjiro a bit more than before. "If anyone's more likely to be pulling someone's leg here it's you, Mr. I Suddenly Give a Damn."

[busstopsign]

You are so dead.

"I never said I did," he replied, when it clearly was visible he did. "Strega's dead and buried after Nyx was defeated. End of the story. Ikutsuki was using the both teams to bring about the Fall anyway. Tch we played right into his hand, the bastard."

[morituramfides]

Bring. It.

"It's pretty obvious that you do. You're just as 'good' and 'righteous' as the rest of them now," he commented with a slight derision to his voice.

"Look, that's a nice story you've got going for you there, but it's time to wake up, Aragaki. The fact is we're all stuck here, and Strega's way beyond from being buried by the likes of you, or any 'Nyx.' Most of your little team isn't even around anymore."

[busstopsign]

"I never said I stopped Strega, you dumbass," he replied back, crossing his arms. He did flinch at the fact he seemed to know a lot more about this place, and the fact his team wasn't there.

"I'm not worried about them. They'll take care of themselves." He meant that both ways, too. If this place was a strange, twisted time-warped hell, he didn't want them here. "Tell me more about 'here'."

[morituramfides]

"No, but you seem pretty proud of the fact that your dumb little team did." Gross, SEES cooties.

"According to 'here,' everyone's that not around is dead. At least that's what the bastards in charge are telling us. Apparently our worlds are gone and we've all been rounded up here to 'keep us safe.'" The absolute and utter disdain in his voice is probably enough to tell you his opinion on that

[busstopsign]

"The hell they are. If anyone from your time or mine wake up, that already makes it false." Shinjiro would refuse that his world was gone after being saved for a very, very long time. At least they were in agreement on something, ewww Strega cooties he was sure had had cleared himself of those goddammit.

"Know who's in charge?" He might want to pay them a little visit.

[morituramfides]

Well Jin was definitely only in denial because the facts contradicted it and also it was stupid. So at least there's not that many cooties.

"If I had any idea, Minato and I would've taken care of them ourselves by now. I don't think anyone has any idea. All they do is hide behind their stupid notes and the grunts that walk around managing this place."

[busstopsign]

"So we're dealing with a bunch of coward assholes working behind the lines. Fucking fantastic."

God he had enough of those guys with SEES being nothing more than one guy's dream to bring about the dark hour. They had risen above that. He turned around, grabbing his weapon.

"I'm going exploring."

If my exploring you mean 'probably hit a few monsters and some of those grunt guys.

[morituramfides]

"Pretty much." He is so enthused.

He watched Shinjiro grab his weapon, and he didn't really give a damn if he were going out monster slaying. "Try not to get yourself killed again."

Jin walked further in the room towards his bed to no longer obstruct the doorway, before he remember something and turned back to look at Shinjiro. "By the way, I guess I should tell you; death isn't permanent here." And man was there some venom in his voice at the thought.

I regret nothing about this edit.

[busstopsign]

"..I don't plan on dying any time soon," was his reply. This was nothing a Shinjiro of the past would have said and it spoke words of his evolution and resolve after the death if Minako.

He walked out after that, leaving Jin by himself to masturbate softly while crying and holding pictures of the Terminator or some other robot..