[semi-open!] I believe in you and I can do anything; we can change the world!

[slightlyoblivious]

Characters: Yukiko Amagi, the entirety of the Persona cast and Stregaverse, and trusted friends. Please tag yourselves in! New Purse Owners, you're welcome here!

(Xion, OU!Riku, AU!John Egbert, Saber of White, Diarmuid, Zelda, Shepard - if you have close positive CR with a Persona cast member, it's fine.

If you have any kind of negative CR, or your CR is only casual, I ask that you please not tag this.)

Setting: July 8th, 2 PM, Floor 28.
Format: Written in prose, either in comments.
Summary: Yukiko requested a meeting.
Warnings: Persona 4 Arena spoilers, talk about past Tower events, probably some language - not from Yukiko, but from other people.



Before the Meeting:

To say Yukiko was nervous was an understatement. She picked a few notes at the piano she'd chosen to call the meeting together on - she could play a loud middle C, but that was it - now and then, but she was still pacing a little and definitely nervous. Anyone wanting to approach her to calm her down would be most appreciated.

Comments

Breaking order a little here.

[imperialsun]

He was about to answer Ken's question, when Hidetoshi began talking. It was only when he was finished as well that Naoya spoke again.

"School play. Three times, girls had died playing the role of the snow queen mysteriously died over the years. There was a curse, and it was forbidden to do preform the play." As for Ken's query... "Persona are parts of you. I have Vishnu, but others are able to use him too. Igor said gods and demons are created by mankind's will. The Vishnu I have is different from Vishnu someone else has, but they are both 'our' Vishnu, and a Vishnu..." and this was probably getting very confusing.

I forgot we had an order I pay best attention.

[miseris_socios]

"... I guess that makes sense. It's still weird."

But that was about the extent of his contribution.

interrupting asshole

[morituramfides]

"Thanatos and Hypnos aren't real." Jin had been there all the while, of course-- listening, quietly for the most part. He's a bit loathe to admit that he really doesn't know much about the situation back home, or anything sufficient about Persona that other groups might know. Not much about Nyarlathotep or Philemon, or any of that stuff.

But really, he didn't entirely care anyway. When he voiced the distinction, he sounded considerably irritable with indignation, as he held one hand up by his side.

"You're forgetting that some of us aren't a part of your cross-time war on the forces of chaos. Chidori and I didn't get our powers from Philemon."

The poison and vitriol in his voice was almost palpable-- but, when he moved on from...that subject, he seemed to ease up a bit on his tone and sounded a bit more reasonable, as he held up both arms in a shrugging motion.

"Besides, did you miss the part where Ruana kicked that asshole out of here? Of course it's within her power-- we saw the guys in charge get rid of that whale when it crashed in here and started demolishing the place, and we know she's even more powerful than them. This Nyarlathotep guy is a small fry compared to that bitch in charge. And none of this shit is gonna get us any closer to stopping her, so give it a rest."

is going to get interrupted back

[slightlyoblivious]

"Only Thanatos is real, and a bunch of people here have seen him. I can't speak for Hypnos, but Thanatos saved my life - I know, ironic that I'd be saved by a death incarnation - back at the barricade."

Yukiko's voice flared, and one of the cellos in the background played a long note to go along with the anger in her voice.

"I know people went through experiments. You probably went through them when Ryoji and Labrys did. And I'm so sorry you had to go through that. Nobody deserves it. But it doesn't mean that nothing else is real. You're as part of this as we are."

SHOUTING MATCH

[morituramfides]

"No, they aren't."

He was perfectly willing to let it go but she just had to go and scratch that scab. His temper flared-- though he didn't get the musical accompaniment.

"Sure, they're Personas, but they're not real Personas. They're artificial; monsters shoved into our heads, not manifestations of some greater willpower or gifts from god. Yours come and help you, and maybe they come save the day when someone's in danger, but ours don't do that. So don't tell me you understand, or that you feel sorry, or that we're one of you. I don't want your pity, but that doesn't mean I wanna be friends with the high and mighty regular persona-users."

gomen not gomen for protag-

[pitiedthefool]

"Calm down."

Odd, because he wasn't even sure which one that was aimed at. Perhaps it was even both. However, this was not the time to have an argument over how their powers came to be. Especially since he somewhat understood the pain that those Shadows cause, all thanks to Jason.

"We understand that you don't want to be friends, however we do want to make sure you, Yoshino-san, and Ken stay in the loop as well." He sighed. "You're right, though - what we need to focus on is those in charge right now rather than simply circumstances back home."

Maybe he was only trying to fulfill an old promise to their leader...

ty, leader!

[slightlyoblivious]

"I meant that literally. Not as some manifestation of anything or a gift. I mean Thanatos picked me up when I'd been hit with an attack that drained my magic and knocked me down hard enough to break my leg and some of my ribs and daze me."

There went the cello again.

"And - even besides that, because I had to fight him here before."

Yukiko paused, taking a deep breath.

"But Yu-kun's right. You need to be in the loop."

aw man no more cat fight

[morituramfides]

"You can see them, but they're the farthest thing from being real in any sense of the word! They're nothing more than a cheap knock-off just like everything else around here--!"

A stray string from a bass guitar went off to support Jin's rising fury as he spoke quickly, but he just as quickly turned away from Yukiko and looked at Yu when he was cut off from the rest of his tyraid.

"Don't tell me to calm down, Narukami!"

Well, he was still shouting, but it did seem like he was...sort of, calming down despite him sounding like he wasn't planning on listening to Yu at all. Apparently he quickly realized that that part of the outburst was unnecessary. He withdrew his arms back down closer to his body, and let out a scoff.

"Like I said, this shit doesn't even matter. Nyarlathotep isn't our problem, and there are other people than you without Personas out there trying to kick Ruana's ass like we should be trying to do. If you're gonna actually worry about the real problem, then I'll glady stick around."

god I don't have enough time to finish these icons

[imperialsun]

Telling someone to calm down was never going to solve things. Naoya had survived enough with Nanjo, Brown and Mark to know better to step in when they started bickering, and only spoke when it seemed a good time to. He was pretty much in agreement with Jin at this point; explaining Philemon and Nyarlathotep had gotten them distracted about the task at hand, although he was going to connect it to something else here...but it wasn't the best time to mention it. Too many pairs of eyes here.

"Let's go back to the issue at hand."

A man of many words.

[miseris_socios]

This was getting worse and worse. Ken drew himself up, did his best to prepare his voice and not crack on it, and spoke in a deeper tone than usual - and fairly loudly.

"Jin, Yu, Yukiko, shut the fuck up!"

... Okay mission not so successful, he cracked at the end. He winced and went back to his normal tone.

"We don't know anything about Nyarlathotep or Philemon. Jin, Chidori, and Minato didn't get their Persona naturally - I did, and as far as I know SEES did too. At least in our world."

"Aside from when a non-natural Persona user's Persona flips the hell out, we all need to use Evokers to summon them. That's basically all the info on Persona we have. If you want more info you'd be better off asking someone from SEES, I guess. Or any of the Kirijo's pets."

[floreatnoctem]

"Well put, Ken."

Because really, she couldn't have phrased it better herself- or without insulting the Kirijo group or S.E.E.S a lot more.

"You're all too damn loud."

Chidori slips into the room with a slight frown, having been doing her best to keep tabs via Naoya (and as soon as she realized he was there, Jin) before deciding that enough was enough. She pauses next to Jin to smack him lightly on the side of the head before settling next to him and crossing her legs and arms both.

"Is there even anyone blocking this meeting from detection, or are you all too full of yourselves to even think about that much?"

[morituramfides]

"Ow--!"

He flinched at Chidori's slap, busy glaring at her over the top of his glasses angrily to bother being angry at Ken too.

"Who cares about Nyarlathotep?" He grumbled, rubbing his head a tad. "But Chidori has a point."

[altitonant_emperor]

Hidetoshi internally winced and gripped to himself about how badly sidetracked the meeting had gotten. While a great deal of that had gone flying over his head, he's only asked for Naoya to clarify more about Philemon and Nyarlthotep because he was aware that he had absolutely no idea of how almost everything Persona-related had occurred. He'd wanted a bit of the history behind it all.

"I agree with them," He backed up them with just as few words, feeling much too out of the loop to get involved in the brewing yelling match between the man named Jin and Amagi-san's friends.

He missed the student council.

He'd been in charge, confident and at least he had known what on earth was going on there.

[imperialsun]

Naoya wasn't sure what was going on anymore either...but he was happy Chidori was here. Not that he'd show it inwardly too much. He did flinch when that hand connected with Jin's face, mind you. She was pretty strong, even if it was a light slap.

"A block is a good idea, but it might just make them wonder even more what we're doing." Secrets were very hard to keep around here after all. "...I might be over-thinking it."

It was a habit of his.

[pitiedthefool]

You know what?

No.

He is done and approaching the ones that are actually being relatively quiet.

"...You two have giant keys, right?" he asked quietly, despite the arguments and his team members not understanding that some topics can be a little too sensitive or alienating for this audience, the Strega members had a point. "Can they lock rooms?"

or are they just really useful for blunt damage.

[attheclocktower]

Xion was a little surprised at being addressed. After all, this whole conversation was way over her head, and leaving her with the distinct impression that she was listening in on something that had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Still, she nodded, glanced over at Riku briefly, before standing up and summoning her Keyblade in a flash of light. She'd done this before after all. Pushing her way towards the entrance to the floor, she came to a halt and aimed her Keyblade at it. A keyhole appeared, inscribed in light. A beam of light issued from the tip of her Keyblade, towards the keyhole. There was the sound of a lock clicking, and a wave seemed to rise up from the floor to the ceiling of the entranceway.

"Me or Riku will have to let us out at the end, but that should work," she said with a nod, then glancing at Yu, added, "I don't think it can do anything about the admins trying to listen to us though."

It'll keep out unwanted visitors, but that's it. There's only so much that she can do, after all.

[slightlyoblivious]

"Thank you, Xion. And again, I'm sorry; I thought the musical instruments would come on of their own free will, like they always do when I've wandered in here on my own to try and think a little and found it too noisy. I thought they'd cover up the noise."

Yukiko bowed from the waist. "I'm sorry."

One of the violins played an apologetic note as she bowed.

[justabignobody]

Riku just nods as Xion uses her Keyblade to lock them in and after a moment he quietly speaks up - given the matter they had been invited about, it seems only polite to share some information themselves.

"They are called Keyblades. Locking or unlocking anything from this door to a world's heart is their primary function."

Though they do double as rather handy weapons.

[miseris_socios]

Meanwhile, Ken looks slightly relieved that Chidori's shown up.

"Whatever we do with that, we're missing the point of the meeting - which itself isn't clear. If we're talking about strategy, fine. Let's talk strategy. I'm already doing what I can with the younger kids - and I'm going to call a meeting after this to discuss what I can do to help organize them."

"But I can't do that if we don't settle down and actually discuss a plan of attack or at least a plan of defense. So let's just move on to the next topic."

[altitonant_emperor]

"Alright."

HIdetoshi looks around, not entirely convinced that speaking at this point wouldn't earn him either an outburst from the Persona-users or scorn, but not showing any outward sighs of it. "Does anybody have any strategic suggestions to start us off with?"

Might as well help Ken with giving the discussion a productive direction.

[slightlyoblivious]

"Actually, I assumed the instruments playing of their own free will would block the words. And the fact that Ruana should be asleep by now."

Yukiko's voice was a whole lot calmer then than it had been a moment ago, and the piano that sounded along with her voice was just as calm and quiet.

"But I agree. I should have been more careful and not assumed that just because every time I came in here they played on their own they would do that now. I'm sorry."

[floreatnoctem]

"If they really wanted to listen in, I doubt music would stop them," Chidori replied cooly, fingers tapping against her arm idly as she glanced at the now-locked door. "Though the locked door I'm not too sure about."

A pause, considering.

"Don't any of your Personas have cloaking abilities at all?"

[evokingfool]

"No."

Minato's been quiet for most of the meeting, but spoke up at the question. While his versatility was his main strength, he knew when to admit what he lacks.

"Cloaking abilities seemed to be a more specialised skill for Personas."

The only one he knew with that was Chidori.

[miseris_socios]

"Mm. Yeah. I think you're the only one who can do it, Chidori."

Ken let out a little sigh, glad that people had at least stopped arguing. A guitar plucked a few notes behind him.

"Most of us know how to fight. I need... help... with training the younger kids how to fight. They need to know how to defend themselves long enough to run away. And there's some people here who can't fight at all - we need to train them. Though I don't think the administrators are going to just come marching down and let us attack, there's still the monsters to deal with."

[morituramfides]

"If you wanna do something useful, teach them to fight without any of their powers-- if they have any."

He crossed his arms with a bit of a huff. "That's something all of us could get used to. It'd at least give us a fighting chance when they decide to switch off our powers."