towerofanimus | ITP: Expansion

Characters: Minami and anyone who finds her
Setting: Floors 25, 27, 28, and 38,
Format: Whatever the commenter prefers
Summary: Minami's been exploring the new levels and gets into shenanigans.
Warnings: None at the moment. Might change as things progress.

Floor Twenty-Five: The Innocent Meadow
Huh. If this was all the Tower was going to toss at them all the time, then Minami could get used to it. Pretty flowers, a sunny sky outside, and a nice, if still overly foggy, view. Once Minami had realized there were more floors she'd packed herself some food from the cafeteria and set off to explore. Hey, it wasn't anymore dangerous than Tartarus and, as long as it stayed daytime, it was safe--relatively safe--for her to go up and explore.

With that in mind she wandered the spring meadow a bit, seeing what there was to see, and letting the sound of Master of the House blare through her headphones. She had been putting more humorous and cheerful tunes on her MP3 Player since she got here. Kept her from thinking things over too hard....

Floor Twenty-Seven: The Foreboding Lab
And then she found this floor, something that gave her pause on the stairs. A place like this is where her brother and his friends had been hurt so much, experimented on, used and abused by the same man who had likely sought to do the same thing to her if Kirijo hadn't been keeping tabs on her and the other orphans from that night. Then again, if she had died that night, if Aigis hadn't saved her by sealing that thing inside her, maybe her brother would've been the one who was safe.

Maybe he wouldn't have been moved around like she was.

Maybe.... no. Don't think about it. Even as she walked along one of the exam tables, the image of those photographs she'd seen stuck in her head, of that little blue haired boy, bruised, in pain, she tried to push it down. Even as she felt tears of regret and turned to rush to the stairs, to continue upward. This would be one floor she would be avoiding in the future.

Floor Twenty-Eight: The Music Floor
Minami officially had a new favorite floor.

Zelda, the one who was a princess, had been teaching her how to play the harp recently. However it was hard to practice with only one between them and no instruments around at all. Minami had been wanting to learn how to play since she was a child, but moved so much that it just never happened. Not beyond the occasional idling with a recorder or a piano, at least.

So when she saw this level it was as if she'd walked into Heaven itself. With a high pitch squeal she started running here and there, picking up each instrument and studying it, a large smile on her face. On occasion the strains of various melodies would fill the room.

And then she found the harp. Not the small lyre that Zelda was using to teach her, but a tall one you had to sit at. It wasn't a guitar--Minami had one in hand she'd tried strumming a while ago--but it was closer to what she'd been learning and she took a seat at it. Unfortunately a seated harp is different than a lyre and all she could do was strum the thing. However she had an ear for notes and once she knew which strings made which notes she was able to strum a basic, if slow, melody on it. She definitely had to be making progress in her lessons if she could do that much, right?

Floor Thirty-Eight: Break Room
And with her explorations done, Minami collapsed into a bean bag chair and looked contentedly out the window at the view, the clouds so close, and a song playing in her ears.

Yeah. Today had been productive indeed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Once Shinji had heard that the new floors had opened up, he had made his way up to the proper level carrying a small clear bag that he had found. A bit before Minami had arrived, he had been busying himself at the various greens, picking out the ones that he knew as herbs, eatable plants and flowers. The cafeteria food was bland enough, and he was going to at least dry a few of these for later and use the fresh ones to make a meal later this week.

What he hadn't expected was the other female SEES later to be here. At first he felt like he should just walk away without being noticed considering sneaking wouldn't be too hard with the music in her ears, but part of him felt like he owed it to himself to at least talk to her for a bit. He hadn't seen much of her since Minako had returned, after all.

"Hey," he greeted, a somewhat timid hand wave, so she'd notice him. The bag was awkwardly placed on the side.

"Ummm.... hi?" she said. No she hadn't been avoiding him ever since she met Minako. Not really. The whole thing had just been awkward once her other self had been here, but she kept plugging along. Mostly it was that they kept missing each other.

But once Shinjiro called out to her and the usual confusion started--she liked him, but he wasn't the Shinjiro she knew, but she wanted to spend time and hang out with him--and she was briefly torn. Then again, just hanging out couldn't hurt, right? That's all she ever wanted from the Shinjiro she did know, after all.

"Are you exploring the new floors, too?"

"Kinda," he answered, shaking his bag in front of her. "Been gathering a bunch of herbs and plants for cooking." Idly, he wondered if the other him where she lived did some cooking. At least out in the open. If was only after Minako suggested cooking with the others did it actually happen, after all.

With a small sigh, he sad down, exhausted from his search and just the general situation, and stretched on a log close by.

"What are you even listening too?" Oh Shinji, master of conversations.

By way of answering that question, Minami pulled off one of her headphones, approached Shinji, and put it to his ear. "Les Miserables," she explained though her pronunciation of the French was, frankly, awful, "The musical, not the book. I could never get through it whenever I got a copy."

And with that said, she leans over a bit, glancing at his bag and smiling. Another familiarity. The Shinjiro she knew was a good cook--he usually made spare money by working in one of the local restaurants as a cook and had such raw talent they never questioned his situation at all.

"Let me guess: you know them all by heart, don't you?"

He...actually knew about this play. The orphanage used to stage a few of them, and although they never did do this one, it had been suggested for the older young adults. Shinji had started to read the single japanese copy they had in the establishment's library before he got distracted as usual. Regardless, he kept quiet about this knowledge. It was a past, distant childhood memory anyway that he didn't really wish to share, and enjoyed the musical for what it was. Quietly with his poker face, until she looked at his bag and he brings it to his front to look at it himself.

"...yeah. I hate having to trust anything here, but most of the food being served is crap. I'm...thinking of making a meal."

It wouldn't be the same as serving with SEES members, but regardless, he did need to vent some of his frustration by chopping off the head of fish.

"Did the other cook too?"

"Yeah," she said, taking back the headphone and putting it back on her ear. She turned the volume down so they could talk while she could still listen to the music. "All the time. He always pretended he didn't like it for whatever reason, but he was amazing at it!"

She laughed fondly at the thought, letting a very relaxed smile cross her face as she spoke.

"I remember, he banned me from ever cooking because I'm really bad at it. Like, Fuuka is a better cook than me, but I think he was resentful I would eat anything and like it if given the chance."

Shinji frowned at the first comment. "That's cause the minute the others would find out he could make things without burning them or dumping protein on top of everything, they'd just watch him like a hawk expecting dishes would magically pop out of his coat." If it sounded like personal experience, well...it certainly was.

They did laugh the same way, he noticed. Despite himself, he did grin a little.

"Tch. Doubt it. Probably worried more about your diet and what you were eating than being pissed off what you could eat anything, even if Fuuka made it. Bet he gave you a hard look if you didn't eat your vegetables either."

[Clearly alternate selves thought alike. Minako had come in today hoping for a half hour alone at the piano, but it still brings a smile to her face to see Minami in here already.

Quietly, she steals unnoticed to the piano, sitting down and playing an accompaniment to Minami's melody after a few minutes.]

[Minami pauses for only a moment once she hears the piano start and smiles when she sees Minako, recognizes the notes as being an accompaniment to her own improvised one.

Well, this is fun as it is, so she plays a few notes, curious to see how well her.... "cousin"--that was the easiest way to think of it--would be able to keep up.]

[Minako hears the change and grins, playing a short melody using the notes Minami had just played. Once that's done, she plays several starting notes as well.]

[Minami is a beginner at this, and her playing is slow and her notes are sometimes off as she becomes familiar with the harp, but with Minako accompany her it's easier to figure it out by ear. Slowly but surely the two of them make their music complement one another rather well.

Well, maybe this whole 'double' thing wouldn't be so weird in the long run, right?]

[Minako peeks over the piano, smiling as she plays.]

Do you know how to sing, Minami?

A little. I was in choir at one of my schools, so I can carry a tune, but I'm not the best.

Do you?

Not really. [She leans in conspiratorially.] I always went to Mandragora to practice, but I could never tell if I was getting better or not.

So now I just stick to humming!

Minato's been staring at the tables with an odd expression, as if he's lost in thought. If it weren't for his SEES armband and healthier look, he could've been the other Minato.

But why was he in this room, lost in thought?

His exploration lead him to find this floor, bringing up unpleasant memories of the Underworld. He barely recalled what they did to him and his mind, but it's enough to leave a heavy imprint into his body. Heavy enough for his body language to shift, unconsciously, at the memories.

One of his hand touched the headphones on his ears, reassuring himself of his Personas' presences and voices.

Perhaps, he should walk away.

But then, he noticed Minami and paused. Should he call out to her?

..That's nice music. [Have something of a smile. Ventus had come up here to train, but...

Well, listening to music was something, too.]

ITP: Expansion

The Innocent Meadow

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♪ the music floor

OBVIOUSLY.

:3 ♪

:3 ♪~♪~♪~

♫!

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Foreboding Lab

Meadow. /backtags forever