towerofanimus | ☆ 003: Private Show ☆ "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

Characters: (Closed) Rise Kujikawa and Yu Narukami
Setting: Floor 32; SUPER backdated to the beginning of December (around the 7th, probably?)
Format: Whatever Twi picks when she tags me. XD
Summary: Rise goes looking for her Senpai after Yu offers to explain Strega things and other P3-related info that she might not know yet, after she kinda-sorta-TOTALLY-accidentally stepped on a landmine while talking with Strega!Ken. (>_<。)
Warnings: Nope, none.

[She's still feeling kinda guilty about how that conversation with Ken went down. Okay, more than just kinda--she really hadn't meant to offend him, or bring up all those terrible memories. She'd just wanted to help. Really!

Part of her still wants to be a little angry that he had gotten so angry, but her guilt far outweighs that self-righteous impulse, soundly smothering it. He was just a kid, after all, and he'd had it really rough, way worse than she or any of her friends. They might not have had it totally easy either, and they all knew painfully well what loneliness felt like, but still... Even Naoto-kun, whose parents had both died while she was young, still had her grampa and that butler guy (Yakushiji-san, if she'd heard his name right); Ken hadn't had anyone.

Rise was usually pretty sensitive about how people were feeling, but it was a lot harder to do that over the computer, even if video equipment was involved. She'd clearly missed some really vital cues...which had led to things ending up pretty tense. So when Yu had suggested meeting up to explain Ken's situation a little more ~~and hopefully comfort her a little as well ;^;~~ she'd leapt at the offer.

Which was why she was currently wandering on the Forest Floor, looking for her Senpai. Not that he was making himself hard to find, because she found him within the first five minutes of setting foot on that floor, even without access Kanzeon's power.]

Hey, Senpai.

[Her greeting is notably more subdued than usual, but she still smiles at him as she joins Yu in gathering firewood. She doesn't feel the need to say anything more; he knows why she's here already, and that's enough.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah. That's what I've seen, anyway. Though, I think it's because we awakened to our powers differently than they did. I know a few who don't even use cards.

[Which really perplexes him, even though he did once or twice ~~and later paid the price for it, ow migraines~~. Looks like they'll be selfish together, then. Though he's... preparing himself for quite a few other nasty reveals.]

Oh, that's right! Michel-san knew I was a Persona user without doing a scan or anything! And he said they got their powers by playing a game...that's pretty different than what happened to us.

[She's still in serious mode, but she can't help but give a small, warm smile here.]

You sure know a lot about this stuff, Senpai. A lot of people must confide in you here too, just like they did back home...

[She trails off a little tentatively and her smile falters and all but fades, because she is sensitive (extra-especially so where Senpai is concerned), and she's getting a weird feeling from him, like he's steeling himself to tell her more.]

...What is it?

He was like that when we first met shortly after he arrived, too.

[And then he invited Yu to join Gas Chamber when he found out he played the trumpet back in the city ~~help~~. ...Oh dear. That comment kind of started a chain reaction that no one would have suspected before not too long ago. Well, at least from one of their perspectives.]

...Yeah. [Some did. Others he had to learn from experience, like what happened with some of the other Persona users.

He inwardly flinches at her noticing it too, even though he really should have seen it coming. It was Rise, after all. One of the few who could sense when something was wrong with ease.

He knows he has no other choice but to tell her the truth.]

...A few months before you, Chie-san, and Nanako arrived... the admins gathered sixty-two of their "rescued" and split them into three groups under the three admins under Ruana's lead. They were kept separate from the others for a month in a little "game" to see who ran things best. Most of those who were in Jason's pod... weren't even themselves after the first week or two.

[There's a long pause before Yu continued, the implications of it telling even before he says it.]

...Members of Strega only opened up to me because Kanji-kun, Naoto-kun and I were left under Jason's "care"... Because I heard their Personas for weeks.

[and he'd been driven mad... done terrible things. He can't even look back on the first week without realizing his capacity for making all the wrong choices, or hear Yosuke's angry voice in his head.

Sometimes he wished Yosuke had punched him, too.]

[That sounds pretty awful--anything Jason did was practically guaranteed to be horrifying, she knew that much even if she'd only been here a few months--especially since those Persona are apparently hostile, even (or especially?) towards their hosts.

But horrible as that would be, it...can't be everything. That pause was too long and weighty (too guilty) for it to just be about hearing terrible voices in his head for weeks. Still, she's not going to twist Yu's arm into telling her about it--he'll do that if and when he wants to--even though she really, really wants to know (and yet part of her doesn't, but that's just her own fear and selfishness talking), if only to help him carry the weight however she can.]

...Oh, Senpai...

[She really doesn't know what else to say. There's nothing she can do to make it better other than just be here for him, and she's kinda sorry for even making him remember it at all. She wants to move closer, to at least bump his shoulder with hers, but...this is his ghost, his guilt they're facing down right now. And until she's certain he wants physical comfort (he didn't usually mind, but this wasn't exactly usually right now), she'll just press her hand to the ground close to his, within easy reach.

She might very well end up abandoning that line of thought, and lose all restraint depending on what he'd been through, but for now, hard as it is, Rise manages to hold herself back for Yu's sake.]

Edited 2013-01-21 15:57 (UTC)

[To be honest, he's just amazed he survived it out of sheer stubbornness. Yet he can't bring himself to completely regret it, because he made some friends in that hell... and he can't regret those bonds. ~~He sure as hell will wonder about his judgement forever, though.~~

Part of him is relieved she isn't asking yet, because he knows how red his hands are. She doesn't need to know right this second (more like he doesn't know if he could risk admitting it again, and dammit shadow self don't even think about coming out again next fog he will say it when he's ready), but he will reassure her of something else. He's fine now. He had to start facing this new aspect of himself a while ago (in front of a certain goddess, no less). It is or will be fine.

He places his hand beside hers, palm up and open. It's enough to say he trusts her still, and likely with his mistakes later, if she'll trust him still.]

It's almost ironic... I still worry more for the little kids who went through that hell more.

[They were around Nanako's age... and that's saying something. Yet for some reason, he smirks a bit to himself. As if there was a part of that memory that made the pain worth it.]

...Did anyone ever mention what happened to one of the administrators when three of the ones under their care revolted against them?

[Rise should know that look. It's the look of "May have gone through Hell, but damn if we didn't punch out Cthulhu."]

[...Well, if he's going to offer his hand like that...there's no way she'd ever choose to do anything but take it and hang on tight.

The fact that there are little kids here, that the administrators aren't above torturing helpless, innocent children like Nanako-chan along with the rest of them...it's just another kind of bullying, really, and Rise hates it so, so much. At least most of the older people can fight back or defend themselves a little, but the younger ones...

She perks up a bit at that smirk though, and gives him a smirk of her own in response to his question.]

Not yet! But it sounds like the kinda story I'd definitely like to hear.

[And maybe the kind of story Yu needs to tell right now, too. To remind himself that sometimes they can have an effect on things, even things that seem far beyond their strength or their reach.]

☆ 003: Private Show ☆ "Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

:3

[1/2] /o/

[2/2]

1/2

2/2

...Too many feels prevented me from tagging this in a timely manner. (ཀ д ཀ)

It's okay, con hangover got me baaaaaaad. (╥﹏╥)

no subject