Atsuro Kihara (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
otakuro) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
compnetwork2013-05-18 08:14 pm
otakuro) wrote in compnetwork2013-05-18 08:14 pm
005 - Eclectic, with Minako
[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...]
[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...]
no subject
[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.
no subject
You're not sure?
no subject
And something about how she was like me.
[All alone. That was a good enough way to describe most of his childhood.]
no subject
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.
no subject
[The text breaks off for a few moments as Atsuro tries to struggle this through.]
Well. Maybe since the lockdown was only in the Yamanote Circle... Still. You'd think someone would have used it at some point to fight back against the demons.
Anyway. This world is a little different, isn't it? That person - Philemon - is giving them to us... a bit like it's artificial, right?
[voice]
It ain't that easy to summon a Persona. [A pause.] Or an ability you never knew you had.
These ones are natural enough.
no subject
[Atsuro's voice, in contrast, is much perkier than it usually is. Though he's cheerful much of the time, anyway, this isn't quite his normal timbre.]
True enough.
...We got out of fine in the end, anyway, so there's no need for complaints. ...It's just a bit strange to think we could've had Personas and demon powers at the same time.
[Not that he wasn't wielding both now.]
...Hey, uh... Shinjiro, right?
Do you remember when the the first time we met here was?
no subject
Over the network. [Though Shinjiro's sure he probably saw him on the day they all arrived. Not that it particularly mattered, since his interests that day lay elsewhere.] After the mess the first Zodiac event left.
Why?
no subject
...Yeah. You were the one who told me to think about the relationships between the signs. And then we... we didn't really meet in person until the Trapezohedron, right?
[His tone is questioning and uncertain. When had that happened, then? When he'd run into Shinjiro during a festival - the cherry blossom festival? No way, that was just a week or two ago. ...It couldn't have happened then.]
no subject
That's about it. [He doesn't get where Atsuro's trying to steer the conversation, but he figures he might as well go along.] Guess we were both in that damn tower.
no subject
Did we ever run into each other at a festival of some kind? You... You fixed someone's geta?
no subject
The only other alternative, besides Kihara flat out being wrong, is impossible. He hadn't even heard of Port Island before now, had he?]
...If you were at the festival two weeks ago, I didn't see you.
no subject
[He didn't like where this was going.]
...There were a lot of girls involved.
[What were their names...? That girl had been there. ...Yukari.]
no subject
[He doesn't exactly hang around with a lot of girls—or anyone, quite frankly—here in Hinoto-ri. Back home, things had been different. Though he had never actually spent much time with them, there had been a few. Yamagishi and Takeba. Mitsuru.
He frowns.
...And Noire and Cynthia and Lucina.... now that he thinks about it. Guess there were more than he thought. But that's not here. It's different.
Why is he suddenly so interested, anyway? What does he want?!]no subject
But... ah, never mind. Don't worry about it; I think I'm just rambling.
[Atsuro is suddenly quite cheerful as he decides not to pursue the topic any further. Whatever was going on... it wasn't fair to drag Shinjiro into his bizarre hallucinations.]