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

[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.]

[otakuro]

Hah... And I couldn't tell a piano from a xylophone. ...Oh, but if you think you want to keep going with that or something when this all clears up, I'm open to taking apprentices.

[That one's mostly a joke. ...Mostly. Atsuro's smile fades after a few moments.]

...I wanted to talk to you, because I thought there were, uh. A few things I should mention. They seemed like... things you wouldn't want people to know.

[greatseal]

Maybe ask me again once it's over. [Right now she can't make an objective decision.

But of course, the conversation would have to turn serious eventually. There's any number of things that could prompt that reaction from him - or all of them together.]

I'm not upset you have my memories, if that's what you're worried about.

[otakuro]

...I didn't think you would be.

[From what he gathered from her memories, she didn't seem to be the type to get upset over anything.]

I guess I just thought you should know.

...You've gone through a lot in your life, huh?

[greatseal]

[She gets upset... but maybe not at the same things that would upset most other people, and not as visibly, either. And you have to do a lot for her to get really upset at you personally.]

Well, you know the answer to that! But so have you. Demons and angels...

[otakuro]

Well... To be fair, that was only one week out of my life. ...It felt like my whole life, but before that, I led a pretty cushy existence.

[Although the number of times he was in danger of horrific death probably did compare well enough.]

The angels were actually pretty helpful. ...When they weren't trying to kill us. In... my version of reality, anyway.

[God was still a jerk though]

...Is it too personal if I ask you some questions about what I'm remembering?

[greatseal]

Because Kazuya... is from a different one, right?

[The Kazuya in her his memories doesn't quite match the one she's met here in Hinoto-ri.

....] And that's fine. At this point I think you deserve the whole picture.

[otakuro]

I'm... not sure I deserve much of anything just for getting your memories by luck. ...But thanks.

[He wonders for a moment what he should begin with. If the memories were at all accurate, Shinjiro was dead... Minato was dead - died a long time ago...

But the most pressing thing was, of course... Atsuro winces for a moment as the memory resurfaces and the voices ring in his mind once again.]

There was this one thing. You were... fighting something. You and all of your friends. But in the end, you were the only one who could withstand it.

[greatseal]

Well, you're my friend! It could get awkward if I just didn't explain anything.

[but of course - that's the heaviest topic.]

...What you saw was Nyx. And you're right. I was given the chance for a miracle, really.

[otakuro]

[In processing the memories, it was difficult, sometimes, to determine the emotion he ought to feel while 'reliving' them. They played in his mind like a movie clip, but given that he had never actually been there, the accompanying emotions were all freshly applied, taken from the cues he could gather from the scene. In this case... the heart-wrenching despair of Minako's friends were just about enough to tell him what was really going on.]

But the only way to attain that miracle...

...Your brother's Persona. When we fought at the Tournament together -- It was 'Messiah'.

[It was not a difficult guess to discern that, if Minato was dead in Minako's timeline, the same held true for her brother. And so... in any world where one of them lived, they would have this role to play.]

[greatseal]

I actually had that Persona too before showing up here...

[But that... doesn't answer his implied question. And dancing around it won't make it disappear, this time.] But you're right. I died. I used my life force to seal Nyx so no one will have to deal with her returning again.

[otakuro]

((Bedtime for me, just as a heads-up!))

[Atsuro is quiet for a few moments, before he gives a small nod.]

You're incredible, Minako. ...Both of you. I know saying that doesn't mean much, but...

[He gives a small shrug.]

Even in the lockdown, we always had options. There were so many paths we could have taken. And Kazuya... He was always destined to be the one who would change the world, for better or for worse. In every reality. But... you didn't have any choices, huh? It had to be you...

[greatseal]

[She closes her eyes briefly. Hearing him say that feels nice, of course, but she still doesn't think it's something worth being praised for. It hadn't been easy but all she'd done is live until the right moment. Someone like Kazuya, who had a huge choice to make and made it with conviction, might be more admirable. (Of course, that could be the respect for Atsuro's friend from his memories talking.)]

I just - we just did what we had to do. And we couldn't have done it alone.

[otakuro]

[Atsuro smiles at that.]

Isn't that what heroes always say? ...I'm not sure I could have done it.

[Kazuya might have. ...One of the Kazuyas out there.]

Although I guess I'm partially you right now.

So this Nyx - [he recognized the name as the Greek goddess of night, but it didn't seem to be the same entity] - This was... death? The death of the Earth?

[greatseal]

[She opens her eyes and returns to her easy, teasing smile.] Yes, but in this case it's literal! [What with Social Links and all.] Don't sell yourself short, Atsuro. I'm partly you and I'm sure you could do it. But I'm much happier that you don't have to.

[Her life is enough. No one else needs to make that choice or worry about it. She only wishes she could have taken on Minato's burden, too.

To the new topic, she nods.] She's the representation of death, and she wanted to grant people's subconscious desire to die. The cult that formed around that in the last month was pretty creepy.

[otakuro]

Subconscious desire to die...?

[...Yes. If he threw his mind back to that memory... Atsuro brings a hand briefly to his forehead with a frown as it sets off a twinge of pain. She had been called forth by humanity's overwhelming ennui with... everything.]

But if you asked me... the clearest thing about the lockdown was how desperate everyone was to survive. They would do anything to save themselves - literally, anything. Maybe people don't realize how badly they want to be alive until they're faced with the prospect of losing it.

[greatseal]

[She nods.] That's exactly it. In the Lockdown everyone suddenly realized they could die and were afraid. But in normal situations, people don't normally worry about dying suddenly, but they do get upset or depressed or unhappy with their lives. And in those moments, it's harder to see why living is worth it. I don't agree, but I can see why it happens.

[otakuro]

It almost seems selfish, in a way. To think that people around the world could be desperately fighting for their lives... and we're sitting around wanting to die because we didn't make full marks on an exam.

[Not to mention that other peoples' death wishes had ended up requiring this kind of sacrifice from Minako.]

[greatseal]

But it still doesn't mean that the whole human race deserves to die out.

[That's the end result. Of course she wants a world where people appreciate their lives, but she can't condemn everyone for the situation, either. Everyone creates negativity sometimes, and no one knew what it could call down.]

[otakuro]

No...

It's more thoughtlessness than anything. It doesn't seem right that idle thoughts can create something so terrible.

...I guess it was the same way back home. I have to believe that humanity is worth it, all in all... but all the little things must have added up somehow to bring down the final judgement.

[greatseal]

People are complicated, huh? Maybe that's the lesson we're supposed to get out of this memory swap.

[otakuro]

I guess so! If there was any real meaning to it at all...

Oh, or maybe we're supposed to be swapping recipes. You cook pretty well, right? I found myself making hand rolls the other day for a lunchbox; I was impressed.

[greatseal]

[she giggles.] Well I'm glad you got something good out of it... If you want lessons on that when this is over, let me know. My skills still don't compare at all to Shinjiro-senpai, though.

[otakuro]

Shinjiro --

[Right. There had been other questions to ask.]

Shinjiro's a good cook, huh?

[He wouldn't have expected it from him, honestly...]

Ah, but about Shinjiro -- There was this other memory...

[greatseal]

[......


......]

I'm sure, but whether I'm going to answer or ignore you depends on what kind of "other memory" you're talking about.