compnetwork | [VIDEO]

[This video feed is notably smooth and free of shaking, flickering or static corruption. Especially considering that it seems to be the first time this user is putting material on the Network- you haven't seen this girl before. She's seated facing the camera, and when she speaks it's as quiet and slow as you expect considering the blankly vague expression on her face.]

......hello. This is user ID....

[She pauses; her eyes flicker away from the camera to check something on her COMP.]

.....2510994. I'm not too sure how essential the serial is for indexation and looking up people..... .... but you can call me Nanami. I guess. Mmm.

......

I'm new, so pardon if this breaks any rules or conventions, but I'd just like to ask about the situation here? From what I gather, there are demons as well as creatures called Persona, and it all runs very similarly to an MMORPG. Many of you are definitely far more experienced players and I don't want to make too many stupid mistakes at this point, considering there doesn't seem to be a Save and Reload function.

[Slowly she starts appearing more lively and picking up the pace of her speech. Especially when the game metaphor starts.]

So what strategies would you recommend? Should I focus on finding allies first or levelgrind instead, like at the 13th Hour feature I've been told about- is that too high-level for someone just starting out? Where should and shouldn't I go? Does anyone know what the win condition for this game is?

That last one.... I've been wondering about that quite a bit. It's just weird to start a playthrough not knowing what you're supposed to achieve at the end of it, you know? Though I guess.... this is what it must feel to be a video game character, huh....

[She smiles slightly.]

Mmm. Any constructive responses would be appreciated. That's all I have to say.

[The video feed cuts. bzzt.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, you certainly took your own sweet time getting here!

[Her voice is put just a notch too high-pitched than usual, but Saionji corrects herself quickly.] Have you even awakened your Persona yet? Treating this all like a game... you're about to piss me off, you know that?

[.....]

[Saionji is here too? Does that mean.... everyone else who...]

Nanami feels more alert and responsive in the wake of that thought, but it only translates to her looking marginally more sleepy and confused.]

Hello, Saionji. You're here, too?

[No shit, Sherlock. Of course she's here. Nanami would try to find a better way to put her message across but that would take too much processing time.]

I mean, well, it's quite a... surprise? This situation, that is....

....

And also, I'm sorry about pissing you off. It wasn't my intention.

Edited 2014-06-02 14:04 (UTC)

[...Saionji...

Really doesn't know whether to trust Nanami. Hell, she was 'deported' (for lack of a better word) as a certain point where Nanami was still 100% alive, as far as Saionji is concerned. Who's to say she doesn't stir shit when Saionji isn't there to...?]

Well, I shouldn't be surprised... SHSL Gamer must be a hikikomori, after all! Social skills must evade you.

[In any case-] There's no one else here, thankfully. I don't think I could deal that.

So! I think you need to tell me a few things, Nanami.

.... ....

[So. No one else is here- Nanami isn't sure what to make of that. Does this prove or disprove the possibility that those who.... lose the game, so to speak, come here? Where are the others?]

[She shrugs. Lacking social skills was never something she denied.... for various reasons.]

I suppose you can put things that way.

What do you want to know? I might not be able to provide the answers.... I haven't been here very long at all....

Edited 2014-06-02 14:31 (UTC)

[Well, Nanami, guess who just changed the privacy of the video? It would be good for you to learn how to do this, too.]

I'm not dumb enough to ask you things you obviously don't know.

Tell me- what's the last thing you remember?

[She's working on it, she's working on it. There's a lot to process and maybe not getting one's ass handed to them by a demon took higher priority than figuring out how to make your answering machine play elevator music. Okay, maybe Nanami's done both, but....]

The last thing I remember?

......

[How much should she tell?]

We were up to the fifth trial. It was messy. I'm not sure what happened to the others.

[...God.]

Who's still alive? Who's not?

And by the statement you're 'not sure what happened to the others'...

[Oh. Oh, Saionji knew it. She fucking called it, knew that Nanami was talking too little and acting too innocent, knew that she was just the right recipe for disaster!] ...That means you were obscured from them, somehow. So. You were executed, weren't you?

..... ..... if I remember correctly...

Hinata-kun, Souda-kun, Kuzuryuu-kun, Owari-san, Sonia-san were alive when I left....

[...they were playing this game, huh. Cards must be carefully played from here on out. Not that she wouldn't in any circumstance, there were safeguards in place in her psyche just in case some classmate got too nosy or imaginative or drunk...]

Yes. I was.

Edited 2014-06-02 15:03 (UTC)

[Oh.]

I knew you were a dirty murderer.

[It's said in something of an accusatory tone instead of a resigned one- the anger is obviously there, though she's shying away from looking at the screen.]

Who did you kill?

[[NOTICE FOR ANY CASUAL READERS: SDR2 CH5 SPOILERS AHEAD]]

[She doesn't react well to these sorts of things, does she. The Mutual Killing must have been a pretty bad environment for her. Nanami feels a bit.... sympathetic, as best as someone like her is able to, though a lot of it stems from how she had promised to help keep her classmates as in-one-piece as possible (and failed. spectacularly.)]

Komaeda-kun.

[Nanami doesn't react to the accusation. She knows where she stands.]

He set up a roulette-style murder and by his luck I shot the fatal bullet, so to speak.

[What a liar. She's a liar. Saionji can't hear anything but excuses from Nanami's mouth---

Pathetic, half-assed explanations with no backing, with the same calm face and tone and no god damn guilt and it makes her sick.] How convenient it must be for you! There's no one else I can ask here to confirm whether you're telling the truth, so you can easily reach for the name of someone we already know is absolutely crazy!

And then use a fake reason like 'roulette murder'? You expect me to believe that? You're not as tricky as you think you are, Nanami. I always knew you were the most dangerous one!

[Saionji's almost drunk in her 'realization' and 'crackdown' on Nanami. Sorry.]

[C'mon, it's Komaeda. If we had those Western yearbook titles he'd hands down be voted as "Most Likely To Set Up An Elaborately Destructive Plan To Kill Himself."]

[Saionji's getting a little ahead of herself here. But what can Nanami do? What would Nanami be inclined to do, anyway? It's the truth, just blown up a lot. So what if she was dangerous. So what?]

[She shrugs.]

....okay. I've said my piece. Your opinion is yours..... I guess.

My opinion.

[It's a complete deadpan.

And then, Saionji just switches the video off.

...Well, if they ever meet face-to-face, shit's gonna be awkward.]

......

[[Spoiler warning? More spoiler references than usual]]

[Her codes register that she's made an enemy; not an enemy, per se, her codes register that Saionji is probably angry and upset with her. It is perhaps not absurd to be angry and upset over things like death. And Saionji has never been kind with her judgement, Nanami remembers.]

[But what to do about this whole thing.... there is no answer for this in her mind. Her situation used to be that it didn't matter whether people hated her or not. It was them who were consequential after all....]

[No, Nanami doesn't think an apology would help. She closes the video on her end; to run through all your options and decide none of them work is to do nothing, in her book. Processors are set to idle if no commands are being run.]

END VIDEO EXCHANGE?

[VIDEO]

VIDEO; 4/4 ok you can reply to this comment forgive me for the icon spam

hi.

SOBS INDEFINITELY

ok. ok

PRIVATE VIDEO;

REAL PRIVATE STUFF. OOH. SNEAKY.

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such spoiler. much spoil. wow

try not to edit so much though i get email alerts for each edit

!!! damnit sorry

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they should never meet face to face