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> 01. [text]

Hello everyone! ＼（＾∀＾） I hope you've all settled in well!

My name's Minako Arisato. I've talked to a few of you already, but for everyone else, it's nice to meet you!

Now that things have calmed down a little I was wondering - how many of us were Persona-users before coming to Hinoto-ri? I think it might be good to meet and compare notes if we haven't yet, see what's the same and what's changed. And maybe we could also make a list of people with experience who can help with answering questions or training, or things like that! Just jumping into using a Persona can be pretty daunting...

For everyone else - what do you usually do for fun? Some of the things I like are music, volleyball, cooking... If we have enough people who like the same things, maybe we could even form a club! I wouldn't mind having someone to play volleyball with again. Or to go out to karaoke! (ﾉ´▽｀)ﾉ♪

Anyway, that's all for now!

[added private text to Shinjiro]

Can I come over later?

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All right, all right...

[She pouts - it's obviously exaggerated, as she extricates herself from the hug. She picks up the bowl which is now cool enough to handle and her chopsticks from the table and...

Plops herself back down on his lap to finish eating. She's actually hungry again now that she has things settled.]

[He easily loosens his hold, eyes following her as she leaves him. He leans forward, about to pull in his chair, when she turns back and just—

just what the hell

does she think she's even—

so he's her chair now. okay. he missed that in the fine print of their new, unwritten contract—the part that mentions that all furniture privileges are effective immediately.

If her plan was to distract him, then she's doing a hell of a good job. Because he's distracted now. Hard to dwell on things when you have a girl trying to set up shop in your lap. He's pretty sure every ounce of heat he has in him is retreating to his face and there's nothing he can do to stop it.

Does she even have any idea—

Even the foggiest idea of what this sort of thing does to—

No. She probably does. And doesn't. All at the same time. You'd think that a few hours of unconsciousness wouldn't have been enough time for him to forget how bold she can be. (And he hasn't forgotten, really. She just always has the habit of taking him by surprise.)

It takes a few seconds for his mind and body to resync. Get used to her sudden presence again, though outwardly, aside from sudden flush that's taken hold of his face and the rigid, startled, cat-like stiffness to his body, little has changed. But almost immediately afterward, he relaxes, slowly leaning back into his chair while a suppressed laugh escapes his throat. Because okay. You win.

If this is how things are going to be from now on, he can get used to it.

But if she's going to bold, then hell, he can be a little bit bold too, tired and emotionally drained as he inwardly feels, head full of everything he's heard tonight and is still trying to sort through. Even though he's so used to holding himself back, keeping himself tied down, he can play her game. So he does, carefully slipping one of his arms around her waist.]

Why don't you tell me about Kyoto.

[Has to be more to it than Akihiko being pulled into things like a dumbass.]

Edited 2012-09-19 07:18 (UTC)

[Normally some amount of stiffness is okay with her, and it still is... but as he'd guessed, her main goal isn't to rile him up, but just relax and forget the awful story she'd just dropped on him. That part seems to be working too.]

First you want - [she swallows the bite of food, talking with your mouth full isn't very ladylike even if she's not looking directly at him] me to eat, now you want me to talk...

[She shakes her head, as though to say 'really, Senpai.'

But she launches into an explanation between bites, anyway. Discussing each temple they went to, the souvenirs they bought, what her other friends outside of SEES had gotten up to. Playing table tennis in the lounge and Aigis stalking Ryoji whenever he spoke to Minako for more than two seconds. Normal, everyday, pointless things.

She'd missed these conversations.

She has to finish up with the execution story, of course. It was the highlight of the trip.] --You should have seen their faces. They were all sitting on a bench looking sorry for themselves, and then Mitsuru-senpai just walked past without even glancing at them.

[He just shoots her a look that plainly says, "if you're saying you can't multi-task, then I don't know you."

But after that he listens. His questions are brief, and his occasional comments briefer. For the most part, he stays quiet, more than content to listen to her ramble on about whatever comes to her mind. The topics are are mundane on the surface. They're light, silly things, the type of aimless conversation that would never have much weight or bearing on the conversational scale of importance, but they mean the world to him. It gives him something to interpret that doesn't consist of analyzing where life went wrong. Sure, it's a distraction, but there's more to it than that. It tells him things. That maybe for all his worrying he never had much to worry about (even though he still does.) Gives him a glimpse into a normal person's reality, what the world is supposed to be like.

He hasn't had too much time to miss these conversations, though he will, given time.

He snorts when she finishes her last sentence, shaking his head. Yeah. He can imagine it. All too well. It probably wouldn't be incorrect to say that he had been on the receiving victim of Mitsuru's cold eyes once or twice. Or her cold shoulder, whichever tactic suited her purpose, rare as it was. He's learned it's best not to make the same mistakse twice, after all. At least he hadn't done something like this though. There is a fine line between angering someone because of some sort of stupid thing you did accidentally, or something you knew would get under a person's skin but couldn't be bothered to change, and then there were the really stupid things no one had a legitimate excuse for doing. This situation was the lattermost.]

'course they looked sorry for themselves. Means they didn't regret what they did so much as getting their asses caught.

[Aki, of course, is still a moron. He'll have to bring up Kyoto one of these days. See what happens. Maybe this version of Aki knew how to get out of the hotsprings while he was ahead and still on Mitsuru's good side.

...Though he very much doubts it. Some things don't change.]

[As if she can read what he was thinking at the end (she can't, but it was obvious on his face when she first brought it up), she comments on that very topic.]

I'm pretty sure Akihiko-senpai was just dragged in to the whole thing... but I never told him that.

[That would make things too easy on him.]

Though I have to wonder what happened to my brother...

[He almost rolls his eyes.] Doing something like that wouldn't've crossed his mind to begin with, not that it probably made a difference.

[But at the next question, he pauses, mulling it over in his mind. He still doesn't know Minato well—hardly knows a damn thing about him except that he's Minako's considerably quieter half, the half that possesses every ounce of reservation Minako had abandoned by the wayside.]

Depends.

[On two options, really. Whether he stayed in or whether he got the hell out while he had opportunity. Those were the only two scenarios that would have made a difference to Mitsuru.]

But it ain't like Mitsuru to give anybody special treatment.

[Not to say she isn't fair when she needs to be, but she's absolutely fierce and uncompromising when she feels the need and has a reason to be. If Minato had been in the hotsprings with the rest of them, every single argument of his would have been rendered null and invalid. Wouldn't have mattered whether he had gotten dragged there, or if he had been trying to enjoy the view of his own volition. She was the judge and the jury, the empress of who did not take well to the flimsy excuses of her subjects—especially excuses of the shoddy, masculine-made variety. Not much brain in those.

In other words, if Minato was there, he most definitely had his ass handed to him on an ice-encased platter.]

Maybe he was smart enough to find them a better hiding place. [She has no real thoughts of him managing to avoid the situation in the first place.... she knows Ryoji and Junpei too well. They must have found a clever way into the spring if Akihiko hadn't realized the plan until too late. Like Shinji, she's sure he wouldn't have followed them knowing the plan. He'd had many more years around Mitsuru.

But unlike the other three, Minato at least has a head for strategy in a crisis. ...She hopes.]

[Her amused nonchalance at the entire fiasco is a marvel. She didn't even sound angry or offended. The traditional response would have been one of righteous indignation—he's certain Takeba had made ample use of it. At least the other males in the dorm can count on Minako to not hold a grudge against them just because they were temporarily stupider than the world was supposed to allow. Though, then again, a considerable amount of time had passed since then. The more the weeks went by, the less angry you became, and the things you were angry about often seemed pretty idiotic in hindsight.]

Must have a good set of lungs on him if he did.

[Which is hardly a serious comment on his part, while he tries to imagine such a scenario, though his tone does little to convey it. Where the hell could he have hidden himself, anyway, let alone three other people? Unless they wanted to try their hand at diving three feet under or something equally ridiculous, and hoping sheer luck was on their side. Might as well pretend to be a cat and see how well that goes over.]

Edited 2012-09-20 09:44 (UTC)

[For her part, she thinks that without herself there, they might have stood a chance... provided they stayed quiet. Yukari had been pretty worried about ghosts.

But really, in the long run... all of them were harmless. Ryoji is so sincere about his admiration of girls you can't help forgiving eventually and Junpei... well, he'sJunpei. It helps that she's sure he sees her as a friend and really has no interest in something more.

Of course, that's her perception now. But even back then, she hadn't been too angry. They'd gotten their punishment for being caught.]

I guess the only way to know now is to ask him.

["Harmless" is a good way of putting it.]

I'm sure there are a lot of things you want to ask.

[Been ten years, hadn't it? Taking her story into account. That was a lot to catch up on. He could hardly imagine ten years worth of lost time.]

[The bowl is empty now, and she sets it down. She relaxes back into his half-embrace.]

I do, but... at the same time I already know a lot. Not about him now, but the places he went and the people he met... [Maybe even some of the emotions. The losses, the fear, and the immeasurable pride in the friends who fought to the end.]

...It doesn't feel as strange as it should.

[He can understand that. The kid has one hell of a resumé, including a very long list of references if he's anything like his sister—if perhaps on the quieter side of social achievement.]

It shouldn't have to feel strange at all.

["Shouldn't," being the keyword. He knows very well how things are and what is. It's probably still going to feel strange, and always will in a roundabout sort of way. Even if they had been separated for only a year, there still would have been a palpable sort of distance between the two, because life made separation an alienating force. It's what made distance and time so hard and painful. But how much of an impact that had on the relationship ultimately fell upon the affected. There were some people who could almost start over again as if their final shared memory had been only yesterday.]

I know. Even if it's been ten years, he's still my big brother. ...But this is still a lot more literal than the usual "he's watching over you."

[It's like her life had been a movie with the sound turned off, only getting half of the whole picture. She got the plot, the setting, the actors... but not the other main character.]

[Shinjiro arches an eyebrow. Minato was the older one? He had assumed the opposite.]

He'll get used to it.

[To doing more than just being the one watching from more peaceful shores. Though in this Minato's case, it was probably more like Minako's statement—wondering if he was being watched over, and imagining every now and again how things could have been if life had gone differently. Shinjiro doesn't bother to say "you'll get used to it," because he all ready knows Minako will—and probably all ready has, in a way—even though she has other things on her plate to contend with, like teammates that don't remember her. It doesn't surprise him that things don't feel as strange to her as they should be, because that's just the way she is.

Minato, on the other hand, probably doesn't know what he's in for. You don't get used to a whirlwind in a matter of days or hours.]

He'll probably forget you were never around to annoy him soon enough.

[He almost pities the fool.]

[Older, by about one minute. And that doesn't mean Minako won't switch to calling him little depending on her current whim. What's a minute, really?

And even if Minato isn't used to her personality yet, he can't claim not to be forewarned. She may not have been a whirlwind at six but she was at least a decent gust.]

Are you calling me annoying, then? [What in this face could possibly be annoying? She's even going out of her way to keep your lap warm!]

[Nothing, in the scheme of things. Minako probably would have won the race if she had wanted to, now that he thinks about it. Carpe diem and all that shit. Seize the day. She just had to make sure her younger brother was out into the world first. Otherwise, she may gotten to enjoy being the older sibling by a considerably wider margin. Minato had a drowsy look about him. Might have preferred to stay in his corner and sleep while there was no one around to bother him.]

Am I?

[Yes, he is.

And cats do the same thing. They're pretty cute too. And tend to be pretty nosy when you close doors in their faces.

...He thinks he's seeing a pattern, really.

But regardless, he wouldn't have it any other way.]

Edited 2012-09-21 08:05 (UTC)

[ Minato sends a brainwave to Shinjiro saying, "You should call her Mineko. I swear it totally was not a childhood nickname." ]

[ he retracts his statement. big brother is always watching

also get your voice the hell out of his head before he makes you

or takes some more suppresents ]

[ but shinji... he can't. he's everywhere.

he's

universal ]

[ so's your equally universal sister

get out while you still can.

run

you still have time. ]

[ we are all rabbits before sister whirlwhind...

there is no escape

time delivers us all to the same end

...

it matters not who you are

minakat awaits you ]

(no subject)

themortalhalf - 2012-09-21 09:10 (UTC) - Expand

[Better a cat than a rabbit. Unlike what a certain protein junkie they both know believes....]

You are. It's not very polite.

[And to make her point better, she decides to turn to face him. Considering their previous position, this involves now straddling his lap with her arms around his shoulders.

Like a cat, if she's going to demand attention, she's going to demand all of it, at the time and place of her choosing.]

[And better a rabbit than a dead little sister.

He'll attempt to stare her down, fighting to ensure that his expression remains completely impassive—though at the moment she's making that kind of difficult.]

Like I said, I ain't a nice guy.

[But if she's going to demand attention, he'll give her a few seconds to reconsider.

He can occasionally be polite.]

[Her time to reconsider is long past. Months, even.

She stares back at him, fingers now wandering from his neck into his hair. If he's wearing the beanie, she'll end up pulling it off.]

You have enough moments.

[More than he'd admit. But it's not only the soft part of him she likes.]

[He feels her fingers thread through his hair. It's distracting, but he still has the mind to shoot her a mildly accusing look when his beanie is spirited away. That's a bit of his soul she's stealing, you know. He'll be taking that back soon enough, when it isn't such of a damned bother to do so. He all ready has his hands full trying to handle the demanding girl that's in front of him.]

Since when [he says after a long moment, his grey eyes never quite leaving hers as the hand that's been around her waist drifts its way up her spine to the middle of her back] have those ever counted for anything?

[And then, as if it's just as automatic and simple as breathing, he does what he probably should have done a long time ago, and kisses her.]