005 - Eclectic, with Minako

[otakuro]

[May 16th, action, Aquarius Ward]
[Atsuro's job at Monoceros Community College wasn't exactly stimulating. 90% of the time, computer problems could be attributed to students trying to download things they weren't supposed to be downloading; the other 10 percent were generally students trying to play things they weren't supposed to be playing. Melted motherboards could be replaced, viruses and worms could be purged. This was all pretty run of the mill and he spent the majority of his hours at his job playing gamend s and programming apps for his own amusement. ...He had managed to make a very sleek Solitaire simulation, if he was allowed to brag a little bit.

As he awaits issues in the repair center, Atsuro boots up Solitaire and idly begins to play for no special reason other than to playtest his own creation. His left hand, idle, begins to tap against the tabletop.

...2 of Hearts. Ace of Diamonds, yesss. 2 of Diamonds, whoa. Q of Spades. ...F sharp major chord. 3 of Hearts. ...Didn't he already get the 3 of Hearts? D major 7th chord. Inverted 4th. A7 -- No, Ace of...]

...

What?

[He stares at his left hand for a few moments before abandoning the laptop and placing both hands square on the table top. ...CEGEGCGCECEG holy crap.



...Late that night, the sounds of tortuous piano playing can be heard wafting out of the open-access music room in the college. Anyone who investigates will find Atsuro staring at his fingers as if they're possessed while semi-competently playing what sounds vaguely like a polka.]

[May 20th, text, public]
[By the fifth day or so, it has become patently obvious that something is wrong. I like your hair! It really suits your style. Do you dye it that color? He is quite certain that his grandfather never featured terribly prominently in his life, despite that his parents were never around. Not that he would have minded having some expectations to live up to, but he liked to think he had done a pretty good job of raising himself with minimal assistance. Jet propulsion activate. ...Did he even have grandparents? They were dead, right? ...Pretty certain. ......Vaguely certain. No, there were two sets of grandparents, of course. His mother's had passed away in -- No. No, they were the ones who had ...I'm sorta like you. My dad died an accident when I was little... You're all alone too, right?

...

Persona...?]



Hey, everyone! I've got a question for you all. It's kind of hard to explain, but... anyone else just have this feeling that something's not quite right? I guess the best way to say it is, I'm pretty sure I didn't have three sets of grandparents. ...There's probably nothing to complain about, though! Free family members; there are much worse things that could happen. I'm pretty sure it has to do with those fortunes we got last week, heh; I got the highest one for 'family'!  But... let me know if something similar has happened, OK? Don't worry, guys, I don't think it's anything serious! (≧ω≦)ｂ

Oh, and hey, Kazuya...  I've gotta talk to you about something.  ...I think there might've been something like Persona already in our world.

[May 22nd, private video to Minako Arisato]
Hey, Minako... I think we probably need to talk.

[Shinjiro-senpai...!]

I'm not sure if I have to explain or not, but... We should probably meet up in person.

[No way... why?]

Is that OK with you?

[Wait, please... we've been through too much together...]

Don't worry; we don't have to talk about any specifics or anything. Well. Let me know!

[Don't cry... Minako. This is how it should be...]

Comments

May 20; text; anon

[badluckhealer]

Heh, why am I not surprised





Yes. Yes, something is very wrong.

[otakuro]

...Do you mind being a little more specific?

[badluckhealer]

I apologize. It is very difficult for me to concentrate right now; I have a particularly foul headache, and light seems to make it worse.

[Translation: Goddamn migraine.]

First, there are memories in my mind that are not my own. I'll not give the details because that would just be rude, but suffice it to say that they are very unnerving.

Furthermore, that pattern of speech I used initially in my message, it is not my own. Those words were intended in - sarcasm, bitterness, some combination of the two, and I try not to allow such emotions to affect me.

...I am emulating the habits and patterns of the original bearer of these memories, it seems. It is unnerving.

[Translation: Agatha is freaking out.]

[otakuro]

Ahh, it sounds like you have a migraine! You probably shouldn't use electronics like this while you're uncomfortable; I've heard looking at the screen can intensify the pain.

[Atsuro is a helper.]

I don't know if what I'm thinking of is that serious, aha. There are a few things that are... weird, but...

[He breaks off for a moment.]

I mean, there could be another explanation...

[Not that he has one.]

[badluckhealer]

[Yes, he is!]

That explains it. Thank you for the information; I was unaware of the specifics of a migraine.

Even so, I do not know if it is my migraine, so I will endure it.

What do you mean by "weird", as far as you are concerned?

[May 20th; Text]

[themortalhalf]

[There's not much that draws his attention on the network these days, but given the posts Atsuro has made before, they are at least worth a look-over. He would agree that something wasn't quite right. Mentions of family members jumping the dust like carrots (who knows where that simile came from), other things. After the Scorpio event, any unnatural mood-changes set him off more than he normally would, because shit does he want to start acting like a moronic invalid again, scared of his own shadow (and he's already started jumping some, almost automatic more than anything), but the end part catches his attention a little more. A curiosity, even though it ain't directed at him. Maybe because it's the idea that there are more people like him, Persona-users, out there in some other world besides this one, though Shinjiro has no particular reason for feeling that way, because it's ridiculous. He doesn't even want to be one.]

Something "like Persona"?

[otakuro]

...Yeah. Or maybe... exactly like Persona, eheh. ^.^;

[Atsuro had apparently discovered the joys of emoting.]

I was just remembering a conversation I had with someone back in the day, and I could've sworn that's what she was saying to me.

[themortalhalf]

[That's one joy Shinjiro's pleased to have not discovered.]

You're not sure?

[otakuro]

It's a little unclear. I was in a hospital, for some reason, and she started talking to me about she was sorry she hadn't explained it earlier.

And something about how she was like me.

[All alone. That was a good enough way to describe most of his childhood.]

[themortalhalf]

[You'd think you'd remember why you were in a hospital. Unless you were a little kid.

Now if only there were more like him.]

Guess that's possible. Persona aren't unique to a single world, if this one proves anything.

[May 20th, Text]

[greatseal]

Weirdly enough, I think I know what you mean.

[Like right now, playing the game system she'd borrowed from Junpei. When she'd gotten it she hadn't actually tried to play it, but today she was just sitting and doing nothing and somehow ended up with it in her hands. The weirdest thing is that, somehow the game's controls feel familiar. It's like she's played it before, but she can't remember exactly when that might have been. Maybe in middle school...? She'd played games back then, hadn't she? There wasn't much else to do when she was home by herself.]

Although I could just be reading too much into it! But anyway... tell me what you meant about "Persona."

[otakuro]

Hey, Minako!

Well. ...I just feel like I might have heard the term before I got here, actually. It didn't seem important at the time, but...

[A brief pause. ...It was important, though, wasn't it? He had been in the hospital and everything. What had happened? ...He'd hurt himself playing ball? Something like that.]

The word just came up.

[greatseal]

Hmm... I guess it's not that surprising, really! Especially since the demons you know look like Personas. Or maybe all worlds have Personas and most people don't know it yet?

[otakuro]

'The power of Persona'...

[Those had been something like what that girl had used. Yukari.]

I don't know why I didn't ask her more about what she meant. ...Then she moved away and I just... forgot, I guess. It's strange.

How did you first learn about them, Minako?

[greatseal]

Well... I moved back to Port Island, and ended up in the same dormitory as a group of Persona-users. A Shadow attacked one night and my Persona awoke then. I found out what was actually going on later.

May 20th, text, public

[andcarryabigknife]

Something similar has happened to me.

I remember having parents.

I am displeased.

[otakuro]

I hate to pry, but... Doesn't everyone have parents?

I mean, they might be dead, or... well. Something else. But you've still got them, right?

[andcarryabigknife]

I could not remember a time where I was not as old as I am now, therefore normally my answer would be "I do not have parents".

But I have a memory of them and their prejudice against me.

Why is this.

[otakuro]

What if... you're remembering something you forgot long ago? It sounds like you've had had some kind of block in place if the memories weren't... that great.

[Not that this explanation made any sense for his own mixed up recollections.]

Sorry to hear it, though.

[andcarryabigknife]

*Gale shakes his head. Atsuro does not comprehend, and it is annoying him a little.*

I remember using a sword. Or attempting to. As a child.

I was never a child. I am trained in modern warfare.

I think something eerie is happening to us.

[May 22nd]

[greatseal]

Yeah... I think so too.

[The big memories weren't the hard part. Demons. Fear. Uncertainty. She knew those things. The emotions fit with her own. That was probably why it had taken her so long to notice the change. Borrowing games from Junpei hadn't interrupted her routine. Neither had her sudden idle interest in coding a program on her computer to more efficiently manage her music library. The foreign memories slipped in and integrated themselves without her awareness.]

In person's fine. I'm free when you are.

[No, it wasn't the lockdown memories that alerted her. It was a simple conversation. "Good luck with your work, Mom. Tell Dad I said hi."

That didn't belong to her. It couldn't. And even knowing that, the thoughts tied to the scene won't fade. She had memories of parents, and - they'd made her disappointed.

It hadn't taken much longer to figure out whose disappointment it really was. The other memories suddenly stood out, once she realized they weren't hers. But still, there were a lot of uncertainties.]

There's a meeting room upstairs here at the dorm, unless you wanted somewhere public.

[...But he might already know that now.]

[otakuro]

Thanks. The meeting room sounds fine. ...I'll meet you there in about 10 minutes?

[The power of Persona didn't belong in his world. Demons didn't operate in secrecy; there were no secret clubs, no missions taken in the space between hours to fight off Shadows. ...No Persona awakenings that landed him in the hospital for weeks. Yukari, Aigis, Shinjiro... These people and memories belonged to someone else, someone whose identity he had come to suspect as the days had passed.

Someone whom, he realized, he had never really ever known at all.

Atsuro makes his way to the Iwatodai Dorms in short time and heads for the meeting point.]

[greatseal]

[She's sitting on the couch in the command room when he arrives. She'd had to stop herself from bringing her computer up here or fiddling with the equipment to see what was still working. Those were his interests, weren't they? Not that they were bad interests to have, but it's hard enough to try and pull her real memories away from the implanted ones without going out of her way to behave like Atsuro.

And because of that, she smiles brightly when he enters.] Hey, Atsuro-kun.

[otakuro]

Hey, Minako.

[While Atsuro had never been bad about keeping a stiff upper lip for the sake of his friends back home, he had nothing on Minako's ability to plaster on a perfectly genuine smile at will. He returns her smile with one of his own as he gently closes the door behind him.]

Thanks for meeting up.

[He'll take a seat - not one next to her, but close enough for conversation.]

So, er.

...I've got yours and you've got mine? Is that how it is?

[greatseal]

It seems that way! At least, I don't think I was able to write computer programs from scratch last week...

[She laughs lightly, despite it not being much of a joke.]