{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
|-
! style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''Suzume Fukura'''
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" | [[File:|300px]]
|-
! style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Full Name:
| Suzume Fukura (福良すずめ)
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Arcana:
| Chariot
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Gender:
| Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Age (Birthdate):
| 16 (March 17)
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Hair Colour:
| Purple
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Eye Colour:
| Dark
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Height:
| 5'1" / 154 cm
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Residence:
| Iwatodai Dorms
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Workplace:
| Gekkoukan High School
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Job:
| Second Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Role:
| Focus
|-
! style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Source:
| Persona 3 (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Groups:
| [[SEES]]
|-
! style="text-align:left" | Player:
| [[User:Almacia]]
|-
|}

'''"Bet you can't keep up."'''

An underachieving student at Gekkoukan High School. Suzume Fukura lived in the shadow of her slightly elder sister Kiyomi, who was much more successful and popular than she was, an honour student at Gekkoukan... until her sudden and tragic death. Adrift with no particular goals for her future, Suzume only knows that she does not want to be the perfect daughter her parents seem to want her to be these days; she clashes with them over everything from her lack of academic success to her interest in 'unfeminine', 'inappropriate' hobbies like video games and high-impact sports, along with a rotating list of other hobbies she never seems to stick with for long. Suzume's resentment at being treated as Kiyomi's replacement have led her to act out, falling toward delinquency. It doesn't help that Suzume has no idea what she wants to do with her life, either; she only knows what she doesn't want, and sometimes feels she has no future at all. As a result she tends to live in the moment, where she relishes challenges that she can succeed or fail at under her own power, without having to worry about long-term consequences. But what she really searches for, deep down, is a place to belong and the ability to just be accepted as herself. Even if she might punch you for saying that.

= Background =
Suzume is the unexpected second child of the Fukura family and, to her, this explains an awful lot about her life.

Suzume isn't generally very forthcoming these days, but she has been in the Gekkoukan school set since middle school - her family has always been in Tatsumi Port City - so it's not like nobody knows about her. Her father Kaito is blue collar and works in the industrial district, while her mother Yae is not employed.

Previously she had a sister, elder by one year, Kiyomi. Suzume never lived up to her sister's image, who seemed to excel at everything she put her hand to. Her parents praised Kiyomi's success, and even when Suzume tried, she - a year younger, a year less educated, a year less grown - could very rarely match the achievements. Suzume internalized that if she tried to match her sister, she'd fail.

So Suzume spent a lot of time either holed up in her room buried in a game or a manga - some sort of escapism - or out away from the Fukura residence, acting as differently from Kiyomi in an attempt to differentiate herself, and to stand out. Which she did, if not always for positive reasons. She got a reputation as, depending on who you ask, a very active youth or an uncontrollable tomboy, especially in her last year of middle and first year of high school. Her close friends were mostly boys, including the trio of Jiro Yamamoto, Daiki Kimura and Hidemi Ito, despite her parents' occasional attempts to get her to act more like a young lady.

And then Kiyomi died in late 2011 at the hands of a driver suffering a psychotic breakdown.

Something about Suzume changed then. It wasn't that much last year, but since the beginning of the school year in April it's been obvious. She doesn't talk about it either, of course. This year at Gekkoukan, Suzume has not been a cooperative student. She's been moody and short-tempered, and though she was never reserved she's pricklier than she used to be. She has not focused on academics or culture clubs; she has even skipped class a few times, and there's rumours she's done worse on the delinquency front - petty crime, even getting into scuffles - though there's no evidence, only gossip. She's tried to hold onto her old friends, though only Jiro feels like they have the same relationship as they used to. She's struggled to make new ones.

That's the situation she was in when she decided to take the Mementos Dare...

==Season 1, Episode 1==
Coming soon!

= Persona =

Suzume's Persona is Atalanta.

Atalanta appears as a woman wearing a short tunic with a decorative silver-and-steel breastplate, matching greaves and bracers and belt, a golden bicep band. She has a lionskin cloak, a mane forming the upper bounds of it which her blonde hair falls into, the two of them nearly indistinguishable. And she has cats-eyes, very very green and vertically slit. A bowgun is mounted on her right bracer.

Atalanta is a story of an individual abandoned by her parents because they wanted a different kind of child and raised in the wild. She dedicated herself to the virgin hunter goddess Artemis and would defend herself against violent men, shooting a pair of centaurs dead when they attempted to violate her. She fought alongside men, but was not allowed to become a part of their team - the Argonauts allowed her to hunt the Calydonian boar with them but not travel with them on their quest for the Golden Fleece, for a woman would be a danger on a ship.

She was a female hero, described as 'as skilled any man' - her very name means 'equal in weight'. But she was mostly ignored beyond a few myths, with some of even her more famous victories rating only a single line in a story. ('...at the games held in honor of Pelias she wrestled with Peleus and won.', even though this event is by far the most common depiction of Atalanta in Greek art.)

In a different legend, Atalanta was (re)discovered by her father who had abandoned her, King Schoenus. She was accepted as his daughter but he began to arrange a marriage for her. Atalanta agreed only if the chosen man could beat her in a footrace; any who tried and failed would be killed. Her father agreed, and several suitors died - but Hippomenes, who had fallen in love with her at first sight but knew he could not fairly win, prayed to Aphrodite for assistance. With the aid of her golden apples, he won, but forgot to thank Aphrodite, and so she cursed them with passion so that they would have sex in a sanctuary dedicated to a different god (usually Zeus or Cybele). For this insult, Atalanta and Hippomenes were turned into lions; the Greeks believed that lions mated with leopards, so as a pair of lions, they would never be with each other... though it is never said if Atalanta truly loved Hippomenes, or if she only married him to fill a role, and out of obligation.

Suzume's narrative combines both sets of legends. Ignored by her parents in favour of her more popular, more successful, and more feminine sister, she mostly raised herself, spending time online and in places her parents didn't approve of. She prefers direct, blunt action; she is not shy about defending herself, physically or verbally, and she is particularly aggressive about being told she can't do something (or must do something) because she is a girl or because she is weak. She has some issues with expressive femininity, or at least expressing it herself; she rebels against attempts to make her act in a more traditionally ladylike fashion.

And, of course, she feels forgotten, overlooked; like anything she did right would not be remembered, or compared unfavourably to her sister. It's not entirely untrue, either, or wasn't until recently, with her parents seeming to push her to replace her sister... that's what it feels like to her, certainly.

= Special Skills =
Coming soon!

=Relationships=

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
|-
! scope="col" style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font size: 110%;" | Name
! scope="col" style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font size: 110%;" | Arcana
! scope="col" style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font size: 110%;" | Social Link
! scope="col" style="background:#9370DB; border: 2px #800080 solid; font size: 110%;"class="unsortable" | Info
|-
|-
|[[Minato Arisato]]
|0. Fool
|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''I owe him, but I don't know what to think about him.''
|-
|[[Minako Arisato]]
|0. Fool
|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''Peppy. And I owe her. ...I'm amazed her and her brother haven't killed each other yet.''
|-
|[[Yukari Takeba]]
|6. Lovers
|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''I'll show her I can handle this. She can't call me helpless.''
|-
|[[Hitomi Mandai]]
|10. Fortune
|★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''You had a flamethrower statue ghost all along and you didn't tell me?''
|-
|[[Ririka Kawase]]
|12. Hanged Man
|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''She's okay. Braver than she looks. Even if I feel like I'll get a crick my neck if I look so far up.''
|-
|[[Shizuka Kuroki]]
|18. Moon
|☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''Don't call me 'Zume-chan'. That's not even a name.''
|-
|Jiro Yamamoto
|17. Star
|★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
|''He's the only one who treats me the same way he used to.''
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

==Season 1==

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{{#dpl:
|category = cutscenes&season 1
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[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:SEES]]
[[Category:Focus]]

2025-07-02T02:54:49Z

Almacia: Created page with " *'''Log: Equal in Weight''' *'''Cast:''' Suzume Fukura (and NPC Jiro Yamamoto), Minako Arisato, Hitomi Mandai, Minato Arisato, Yukari Takeba, Junes (as Horde of Pixies) *'''Where: Mementos -- Path of Qimranut''' *'''OOC Date:''' July 01, 2025 *'''IC Date:''' June 03, 2012 *'''Summary''': ''SEES makes an exploratory trip into Mementos and finds more than they expected...'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed. <poem>Mementos. Nobody r..."

*'''Log: Equal in Weight'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Suzume Fukura]] (and NPC Jiro Yamamoto), [[Minako Arisato]], [[Hitomi Mandai]], [[Minato Arisato]], [[Yukari Takeba]], [[Junes]] (as Horde of Pixies)
*'''Where: Mementos -- Path of Qimranut'''
*'''OOC Date:''' July 01, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' June 03, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''SEES makes an exploratory trip into Mementos and finds more than they expected...''

----

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Mementos.

Nobody really knows what Mementos is, and SEES is no exception. They know it's a supernatural space. They know that Shadows appear in it, though the Shadows are different from those they encounter in Tartarus. But they don't know how far it goes, or even if it has a bottom; they don't know what's in it, really; and they don't know if the Shadows can get out to join the ones that wander in the Dark Hour.

But they do know how to get *in*.

It's not hard: just use an Evoker at a transit station. Train or bus, it doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't even have to be the Dark Hour, so they might even be able to explore *and* get a full night's sleep. The hardest part will be not getting caught using something that looks like a gun in a place that is by its very nature extremely public. Maybe the bathroom really is a good idea... or around back, because you don't have to be inside the station. Nearby is enough.

Once the SEES exploration team is inside, though...

Even the upper floors of Mementos - Qimranut, the Thought-Robbing Path, though they might not know either proper name for it - are uncanny. It could be an abandoned subway track, if it wasn't for the fragmented blueness at the edge of vision and a constant, steady blowing of wind from... somewhere that seems to push you on.

But look around and it's less pleasant. There are weird growths at the top of pillars, and alongside the tracks; at a distance they look bloody. The tracks wander everywhere and don't follow any kind of sensible pattern, regularly dead-ending into walls or splitting and then rejoining later. It feels like the same kind of almost abstract shaping as Tartarus, like an organic pattern you don't understand - more grown than built.

At least you are not immediately ambushed. So there's that. But there is the sense there are Shadows around, and in the distance, they can sometimes be heard.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Minako is slightly unnerved that using an Evoker at a transit station works. It's the sort of incongruity with the supernatural and natural world that is a reminder of how little they know -- of how rules exist but those rules don't quite follow the expected pattern.

She straightens up as they enter, back straight up; her Evoker is at her side, and a little blue mist trails after her. She was the one to pull the trigger.

Her crimson eyes scan over the strange look of Qimranut. Almost an abandoned subwaytunnel -- except that they turn bloody in the distance, spiral out into odd patterns, and there are growths here and there.

It reminds her of Tartarus, and not in a good way.

"...This place is weird," she says, her voice quiet. "I don't think I like it."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
Hitomi Mandai isn't anyone's sucker.

She went into the bathroom stall to --

Which means that she manifests in a half-crouch, her arms immediately sticking out and flailing as she straightens herself upright and looks down, patting herself for a moment, glancing towards the others. "Wow," she says, as the mist dissipates. "It really worked!"

She puts the Evoker away.

After this, Hitomi breathes steadily, pausing to tighten the belt on the reinforced greave-like trousers and the arm guard. She snaps the top of the Evoker's holster down. "... It's so ''morbid''," Hitomi echoes after Minako speaks. "Is this... Are we even still on the island?" As she says this, she reaches to the other side of her extremely tactical belt, putting her hand in a hard-sided pouch. Something clicks inside as she fiddles with it. With *them*.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"Excuse me," Minato says, as he heads into the bathroom.

He doesn't clear his Tired status, though -- for one thing, that isn't even a ''mechanic'' any more, and for another thing, the bathroom trip is a RUSE.

Bang...

Minato, for one, has no way to divine the proper name of Qimranut. He could ask Igor, maybe, except that Igor doesn't really tell him anything aside from how exciting it is he's gaining more Personas and some ambiguous statements about destiny or something. He does know one thing, though:

This wind is terrible for his hair. His mop-over-an-eye is presently whipping around his entire face, and he looks mildly more displeased about it than he normally does. Maybe. Maybe it's just a trick of the wind, because he's not emoting ''that'' much.

"Yeah," he agrees with Minako, suitably ruffled.

He steps forward, anyway, pulling out a sword he was hiding in his bag before now, thank you very much.

"Let's commence the mission."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
"Uhhh..."

Yukari gripped her bag tighter, "I feel pretty weird taking this into a train station." She murmured to Minako. "Let's, do this in the girl's bathroom, and make sure noone else is there..."

She definitely seems worried about being caught, but more than that.

"I hope noone hears us and freaks out. Like - what do ''other'' people hear when we do this?"

Eventually the restroom clears enough that she feels - well not comfortable, but at least able to put it to her head.

'Just put it to her head and pull the trigger.'

There's a breaking noise within her head, like something shattering, the world around her distorts, as organic matter festoons the girl's restroom at the train station, everything changing before her eyes.

"AAAAAHHH!?" She shrieks, unable to help it, "What did I do!? ... This - this isn't like the Dark Hour at all! Oh- geez, where are we?"

Eventually she recovers enough to go into the station itself, and things are little better here.

"I don't like it either..." She comments, quietly, as she takes her bow out of the case, and strings it on the spot, "... I thought a place called Mementos would be less... horrible."

She checks her shoes, somehow she doesn't think it's adequate to the task at hand... she thought she was used to the pools of blood, but...

... now she doesn't even know what she'll be stepping in.

Minato tells them to commence the mission, "Uh, sure, the mission. Right behind you." She's glad she's not going first.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Mementos isn't a fun place to walk. Even if you follow the train tracks it's a confusing maze (and yes, Yukari, there are unpleasant things to step in if you don't watch your step), and there are parts where you can step away from them - side rooms not on the 'main line'.

In one of those rooms, there are two boxes, up on pedestals like treasure chests. One is locked and firmly closed, and nobody has a key that fits it. The other is open and empty.

But as the group from SEES begins their exploration of the shallow levels of Mementos, the sounds of Shadows become louder. And though most of the Shadows in here are strange blobby things that only form into something stable when their mask is removed, or when they attack, the group eventually hears *voices*.

"Hahaha!" There's laughter coming from down the way. It's high-pitched, girly, and delighted.

"Humans! Humans!" a Pixie says, and another behind her says, "They've got blood! Blood!"

"What color is it? What color is it?" says a third.

As it turns out, there's an entire group of Pixie-form Shadows, and on the other side of them is whatever they're interested in.

It's ugly, here--and the Pixies, while they're having a good time, don't sound especially friendly.

Because...

...there are people there. Not Shadows, but humans. And, perhaps surprisingly, it's people you might very well know.

One of them is a male student in a blue-green shirt that seems faintly shimmery in the uncomfortable fluorescent lights; some kind of stylish synthetic. He's noticably taller than the average, slender, and probably downright pretty under better circumstances than he's currently in. But right now he has hunched into a corner and is trying to make himself as small a target as possible for the Pixies - even his head is down... except for one leg he has stretched out.

This is Jiro Yamamoto, second-year Gekkoukan art student. He's not in anyone here's class but he's been around. He does painting: he practices fine art, though this year he's also joined the animation club out of interest.

In front of him is a much smaller student. A girl, currently wearing a billowy dark blue top tucked into a pair of slightly baggy, comfortable jeans held up with a belt. She has a somewhat incongruous pair of weapons: side-grip combat batons, like police use. Or like martial arts' tonfa.

This is Suzume Fukura, from 2-E, who has a reputation as a bit of a delinquent - she's cut class a few times, and though rumour says she's done more nobody can prove it. She isn't officially in any clubs at the moment except for a slightly unofficial gaming club and tends to ditch school as soon as she can, but she hangs out with some other students. One of them is Jiro.

She takes a wild swing at the Pixies and is rewarded with more high-pitched laughter...

> Suzume struck!
> But Suzume's attacks can't connect now...

Suzume is as terrified as Jiro. She has her right tonfa held length-out, so she can strike with it like a club, and her hands are clearly shaking; her eyes are wide and she's taking shallow, frightened breaths. But she can't run - well, *she* can, but Jiro doesn't look like he's able to rise, let alone run; by his and his leg's positioning, he tripped on the track and twisted his ankle.

There is no way Suzume can win this fight.
</poem>

AS: Junes has readied for combat with Pixie Mob! She is now fully healed! Ready for 4 opponents!

<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"It's okay, Takeba-chan," Minako says. She glances sideways at her and smiles. "I mean... it's creepy. But we're all here together."

She looks at Hitomi -- looking for back-up. "Right, Mandai-chan?"

Minako swings her naginata down, one-handed -- the way she practiced, so she can carry her Evoker when she needs it. Which, in a space where she might fight, she probably needs both. Her Evoker is in her other hand.

"I'm with you, Minato-kun!" she tells her brother.

They begin moving. Minako frowns as the sound of the Shadows get louder -- and then there's laughter. She frowns, as she spots the ones in a Pixie-like shape. Her eyes widen for a moment, as she realizes who is behind them. She sucks a breath in.

She knows those people. Yamamoto-san and Fukura-san. Suzume is trying to fight with a tonfa. That prompts Minako to start running. "Both of you! Get away as soon as we make an opening! Minato-kun, I'm going in!"

It's an old tactic: she rushes in to distract the Shadows, let the others summon their Personas, and then do it next. Her Evoker goes into her hip holster, and she grips her naginata with both hands. As she comes behind the pixies, she swings her naginata out in a wide arc.

"HYAH!"

</poem>
AS: Weapon! Minako Arisato has used the Slash skill Naginata Slash on Junes! 2 Hits!
AS: Minako Arisato's turn has ended.

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
The rest of them assemble. Hitomi looks at Minato, then towards Yukari... "That's right," Hitomi agrees with Minako, adding a "... i guess," at the end, which may mute some of its impact.

Even so, the mission commences. Eerie wind. Morbid decoration. Hitomi does not care for this place, even as she follows along with the others. She keeps click-clacking that pouch as she watches, as she looks, and as she hears something laugh.

And identify them.

And mention their blood. This is the point where Hitomi shoots Yukari Takeba an extremely Concerned expression. Classical C_C behind the glasses.

And a moment later--

"Shit!!" Hitomi exclaims. "Fukura, Yamamoto, how in the hell are you--" And then she can see that Suzume, who has something resembling weapons, is swinging them at the Pixies. Hitomi's mouth works faintly but thankfully Minako takes it better, or -- or something. Hitomi brings her hand up and takes a deep breath... And snaps her hand down!

There is a whack and a clatter and a couple of small red objects glint brightly as they ricochet off the ground and up towards the Pixies. On the rebound, they seem to glitter with red light! (Though, they were already red translucent objects on the way out - they're casino-sized dice, and the edges, presumably, are sharp.)

"Get behind me, nerds!" Hitomi then blurts, which is mostly 'loud' with a side dish of 'anxious'.

</poem>
AS: Weapon! Hitomi Mandai has used the Strike skill Casino Dice on Junes!
AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Junes takes 36 Slash damage from Minako Arisato's Naginata Slash. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Junes takes 45 Slash damage from Minako Arisato's Naginata Slash.
AS: Counter Best! Junes takes 18 Strike damage from Hitomi Mandai's Casino Dice.
AS: COUNTER! Hitomi Mandai takes 11 Strike damage in return for her attack!

<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Minako handles reassuring the team. Minato reassures them by confidently striding forward. (He is not very good at the talking part.)

Minato pulls out a glowing blue shard from his pocket, and shoves it in the keyhole of the locked treasure chest.

"...", he says.

"It won't open."

That's because Twilight Shards don't open chests in Mementos, Minato!

He turns away from the chest, and looks up, as he hears a voice. Two voices. Three...

Minato approaches. Minato beholds the Pixie Shadows.

Minato registers that the Shadows are talking, and then files that off to the side of his brain, because there are ''people'' here, and they're in ''trouble.'' Like that girl he just saw at the festival the other day. Isn't she from the class next door?

She's trying to fight, but...

Minato runs in, on the heels of his sister. "Orpheus," he intones, as he presses a GUN to his HEAD (it isn't a gun) and FIRES --

and --

What shatters isn't bone; it's glass. The strange, murky atmosphere of Mementos is briefly interrupted by blue, as another monster rises, behind him -- the Master of Strings, Orpheus. That doll-like creature strums his lyre, and the Tarunda tune he plays washes over the Pixies, to enervate them and make them less of a ''threat.''

He comes to a stop in front of Jiro, though he ''looks'' to Suzume. Hitomi tells them to get behind them, Minako tells them to get away; Minato doesn't waste his breath repeating their suggestions again.

"You can't fight them like you are," he says, instead. "They're not human."

</poem>
AS: Persona! Minato Arisato has used the Almighty skill Tarunda on Junes!
AS: Minato Arisato's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Junes takes 0 Almighty damage from Minato Arisato's Tarunda.
AS: Atk_Dn added!

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
"Easy for you to say... they're together at the start of horror films too."

Yukari says to Minako obviously tense, Hitomi's muted comment failing to calm her at all.

But she eases up some as they go, it's a horror film but it's not ''too'' unlike Tartarus.

"What if-"

Yukari takes out a Twilight Fragment only to see Minato already got the same idea. "Good thinking."

But - The Locked Chest Remains Locked.

"Worth a shot." She sighs. It works in Tartarus, but... the chests there had a mechanism for it. "Wish I'd brought some hairpins..."

She looks at Minako's hairpin but doesn't - make that suggestion. It'd be like someone asking her to take her Choker off, or Minato to take his earphones off.

And then things change... rapidly, as she hears voices, "What's that...?" She whispers, because Shadows don't... ''talk'', in her experience.

Coming upon Pixies bullying people is surreal to her, "... Huh? Blood?" She shares a glance with Hitomi, like 'What did we walk into!?'

They're- is someone in here!?"

As Minako charges in with Minato, Yukari stops as she looks puzzled at Suzume, does she look familiar? "No way... someone else!? Hey! Leave them alone!" But, no time to contemplate, as she puts the Evoker to her head...

"I can do it..." And pulls the trigger, with a sound like thunder in her head. It's like sinking through your own head, before something shatters!

And Io comes out, a fey girl chained to the hollow in a bull's skull. "Let's see how you like it!"

She says to the Pixies, as energy floods the area, in twin spirals from other side... flooding them with a narrative of maddening erratic panic caused by continuous torment.

Hopefully that should keep them having time to get any bright ideas, like holding normal people hostage, and make them easier targets.

</poem>
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Almighty skill Pulinpa on Junes!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.

AS: Take! Junes takes 0 Almighty damage from Yukari Takeba's Pulinpa.
AS: Panic added!

<Pose Tracker> Junes has posed.
<poem>
Shadows, in these forms or otherwise, are far too much for ordinary teenagers. The SEES members start running, and it's a good thing, too.. Suzume's attack couldn't connect, and that Pixie's hands started crackling with electricity as she prepared a spell--

But Minako ''slashes'' across her, and catches a second in the bargain. The first dissipates into shadow stuff.

"RUDE!" says the other pixie who was just hit--only to get brained by the dice and ''shove'' some ground back at Hitomi.

"Greedy!!" another says to Minato, and they start whirling on the main group. "Ugh, as if!"

They have, for the moment, turned their backs to Suzume and Jiro, focusing on the Persona-users before them. But one is still dangerously close to Jiro...

And lightning bolts crfash out for Hitomi! Another Pixie waves her hand, and strange blasting lights erupt from her fingertips, a spray of riotous color meant to confuse. Another just ''charges'' Minato, though thanks to his debuff, it won't be as bad as it could've been.

And the next? The next just prays. "Patra!" she calls.
</poem>

AS: Persona! Junes has used the Elec skill Zio on Hitomi Mandai!
AS: Junes takes 27 damage from Panic!
AS: Persona! Junes has used the Almighty skill Tentarafoo on Minako Arisato and Yukari Takeba!
AS: Weapon! Junes has used the Strike skill Demon Bash on Minato Arisato!
AS: Persona! Junes has used the Recovery skill Patra on Junes!
AS: Junes: Panic removed!
AS: Junes's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Junes takes 0 Recovery healing from Junes's Patra.
AS: Block Worst! Hitomi Mandai takes 46 Elec damage from Junes's Zio.
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Junes gains 1 Limit from Schadenfreude!
AS: Take! Yukari Takeba takes 0 Almighty damage from Junes's Tentarafoo.
AS: Panic added!
AS: Block Neutral! Minato Arisato takes 39 Strike damage from Junes's Demon Bash. Critical Hit!

AS: Take! Minako Arisato takes 0 Almighty damage from Junes's Tentarafoo.
AS: Panic added!
AS: Junes gains 1 Limit from Schadenfreude!
AS: Yukari Takeba spends Limit on Shift! Minato Arisato can use another Weak skill this round!

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume squeezes the tonfa grips harder, her knuckles whitening slightly as the fairies - well, Pixies - continue to threaten her. And Jiro.

She's not going to leave Jiro. She got him in here. And even if she's frightened, she can't just run and leave him. She'd never be able to live with herself afterwards.

Though at this point she's not quite sure she's going to survive at all. The Pixies are getting awfully close, and they can do something with electricity; the last time they only shot the tracks, but this time...

...

"...what??"

Suzume snaps toward voices - human voices, not Pixie voices. At first, sans context, she doesn't even recognize them; one of the Arisatos with a *naginata*, Takeba with a bow (well, okay, that one makes some sense), Mandai with dice (that one does too)...

"What are *you* doing here?" Suzume would normally be prickly at a time like this, but she's just been given a chance to survive. Even she isn't *that* ungrateful. "Why are you here?" She didn't exactly answer the questions asked of her.

And then Minato runs in front of her and SHOOTS HIMSELF with a GUN.

Suzume freezes for a moment. It's not a normal reaction for her, but she can't help it - she bit back a shout, or a scream (she will never, later, admit which one) as Minato summons something instead of falling to the ground, dead. As does Yukari, a moment later.

"You just - you shot - " And it summoned something. Some power... and Minato says she can't fight.

She brings her tonfa up again. Her hands are still shaking. "I have to," she says, a little unsteady. "I can't - can't leave Jiro." But she hasn't managed to swat a Pixie yet, and whatever *they're* doing is working, impossible as it is. This whole day is impossible.

Suzume steps back, still interposing herself as if to cover Jiro from Pixies. Her instinct is to act aggressively, decisively, but she's useless in this, and she hates it even though she's afraid of it. "C'mon, I can't lift you anymore - " Jiro appears to be more shocked than Suzume is, perhaps more like people they have seen in Tartarus; he doesn't say anything as Suzume struggles to get him up, supporting his weight with her shoulders. It's awkward, because of the size difference between them.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"We just have to make sure we ''don't'' split up, then," Minako says to Yukari, flashing a smile.

She was disappointed that the Twilight Fragment didn't work. What do they do here? Do they need to find keys or something?

As she charges the Pixies -- ducking aside, a little uncertainly, of Hitomi's dice toss -- she realizes on Yukari to, in fact, 'do' it. Her brother does likewise.

Her strike takes out one of them -- the other calls her rude. She frowns, before she looks at a Pixie -- which sends forth a spray of color that hits her. She stumbles back, eyes wide. "Oh, hell, there's a lot more than I thought!"

She looks at Suzume -- and then there's a nervous laugh, but she ''tries'' to sound impressive. "We're here to save you two."

She frowns, before she reaches down. She draws her Evoker out. Her eyes are wide; panic is setting in, making her breathe hard. Her eyes, though, focus -- and then she puts the Evoker to her head. She squeezes the trigger.

Blue glass explodes out of the side of her head, as she cries out: "Linos!"

And it's the sister to Orpheus who appears. With a golden body, long brown-red hair, and a scarf -- and a harp on her back -- she takes form, and then throws both hands up over her head.

Then, crimson light erupts around Hitomi Mandai -- and the world seems to come into sharper focus. "Mandai-chan!" Minako cries out. "Knock 'em dead!"

</poem>
AS: Persona! Minako Arisato has used the Almighty skill Tarukaja on Hitomi Mandai!
AS: Minako Arisato takes 27 damage from Panic!
AS: Minako Arisato's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Hitomi Mandai takes 0 Almighty damage from Minako Arisato's Tarukaja.
AS: Atk_Up added!

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
(The diversion to investigate the treasure chest got Hitomi watching, though she didn't join in on the approach. It's like a dead end, it's not like they're going to run off with a sackful of Incan gold. Maybe they'll find something good? Or useful? Oh, no. "Huh," she had observed, at the lockpicking failure.)

BUT:

Hitomi is sweating, but she sweats kind of easily. (Fortunately, the Kirijo group has access to UNIQLO Airism technology, allowing her to dry out easily between battles. This has been a sponsored promotion.) After the dice rebound, she says to the Pixie who talked back to her, "Shut up!!"

A witty rejoinder indeed. The Pixie's argument of a lightning bolt gets a "Ghhhk!!" from Hitomi as she staggers back a pace and ends up sinking to one knee-- head lolling forwards, trembling visibly, even as those red dice clatter back to her immediate area. With a fumbling tremble of the fingers, she reclaims them.

Her heart's pounding. The lightning, maybe. And then Minako's encouraging her. Oh no, pressure. Hitomi's eyes cut towards Fukura, and towards Y--

No, that's not what Suzume said, is it?

"... aha," she wheezes through the numb, tingling feeling throughout random stretches of her body, passing over and around things like the soft fibers in a car wash.

Hitomi's lips twitch back for a moment. It might be a grin, or a rictus of pain. With a lurch she pulls herself back upright, still trembling, which isn't that encouraging. "F-fine--" She raises a hand up to her forehead -- which is at least not shooting herself in the head. There is a pulsation of something like blue around her, the ambient reddish light putting some purple on its fringes, as she says, "Tyche--"

"Get them all!" The light pulsates for a moment, and the manifestation comes over her as well. Perhaps this one is less horrifying - it just looks like a Greek statue out of a textbook, if one with something oddly like a magatama cradled in one outstretched hand. And then there is a sudden hiss-FLASH as flames gout outwards towards the cloud of Pixies, even as Hitomi starts lurching towards Jiro and Suzume.

</poem>
AS: Persona! Hitomi Mandai has used the Fire skill Fire Breath on Junes! 3 Hits!
AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Junes takes 14 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Fire Breath.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Junes takes 41 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Fire Breath. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Junes takes 28 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Fire Breath.

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
Yukari begins to wonder why these weird little Pixies talk like they're horrible twisted teenage girls. But you know what! Some questions are better left unanswered.

"Wait - I thought you realized there were this many!?" Yukari says of Minako's comment on there being a lot more than she thought, "Geez!"

Suzume asks a question of them, on what they're doing here. Yukari briefly considers all versions of the truth on how to respond.

We just wanted to check this place out?
So we were carrying a GUN into a TRAIN STATION when we put it to our heads-
So our club is actually a secret organization dedicated to-

All truthful options = Bad! That's Great!

"Look that's not important!"

What is important is figuring out how Hitomi's dice work!? HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

The riotous spray of color strikes her, and suddenly, something just wells up inside of her, confusion, panic! "Whahuh!? What's going on!? Well of course I'll pay the fare!"

Yukari loses 2278 yen!

"I'm not some kind of freeloader!" She says, after she hurls yen out of her coin purse at the pixies.

Suddenly her pupils dilate, and it wells up into her throat, as she puts her Persona back to her head: "Someone! Anyone!?" And pulls the trigger...!

Io appears, head whipping wildly in the wind it summons, as Yukari pulls back her bow, and starts firing arrow after arrow at random - AT RANDOM!?

In mid-air, each projectile gets imbued by Io's Wind energy, suddenly accelerating as they become a deadly barrage.

"Do something!"

In her fear and confusion, she may be calling out to anyone, but she's looking right at... Minato as she says that last comment. After all, he protected her before on that rooftop.

</poem>
AS: Tandem! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Stinging Torment on Junes! 2 Hits!
AS: Yukari Takeba takes 27 damage from Panic!
AS: Yukari Takeba: Panic removed!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Junes takes 34 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Stinging Torment.
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 68 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Stinging Torment. Critical Hit!

<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"Got it," Minato says, as Yukari shrieks for someone to ''do something.'' She must be pressured, if she's paying the fare.

"Persona."

Once again, he fires his Evoker against his temple; once again, Orpheus rises, because an Evoker doesn't shoot ''bullets'' into a user's brain. His lyre isn't just host to some sick beats, -- he can also just take it and physically ''slam'' it over a Pixie's head.

"We're exploring," he explains why they're here, simply, apparently going through none of the internal monologue Yukari did to get to that answer. "And an Evoker isn't a gun." Which would explain ''why'' it's not shooting bullets and he's not presently showing the Pixies what colour his blood is.

The Pixies don't take kindly to him ''doing something,'' though. One ''charges'' him, and he staggers as he's knocked back, his Evoker scattering from his hands and falling behind him. "Ugh," he grunts, as he straightens up. His hand is empty, but the Pixie is still there, in front of him -- and Jiro and Suzume are still ''behind'' him.

He won't stop.

Minako said they're here to save them; Minato follows through, grasping his shortsword and slashing at the gossipy Shadow with a quick one-two-three.

He specifically targets the one Pixie who Hitomi landed a critical hit on, because that's tactics, baby.

</poem>
AS: Weapon! Minato Arisato has used the Slash skill Strong Slash on Junes! 3 Hits!
AS: Persona! Minato Arisato has used the Strike skill Assault Dive on Junes! 2 Hits!
AS: Minato Arisato's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Best! Junes takes 12 Slash damage from Minato Arisato's Strong Slash.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Junes takes 27 Slash damage from Minato Arisato's Strong Slash. Critical Hit!
AS: Avoid Worst! Junes takes 30 Slash damage from Minato Arisato's Strong Slash.
AS: Block Best! Junes takes 25 Strike damage from Minato Arisato's Assault Dive.
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 39 Strike damage from Minato Arisato's Assault Dive.

<Pose Tracker> Junes has posed.
<poem>
"She told me to shut up!" the Pixie cries, scandalized at Hitomi. "She actually told me to shut up!"

"Rude!" calls one, "Rude!" calls another, and another, and another. The lightning makes them feel a little better--but not for long. Minako's Persona comes out and supports Hitomi, which gets a few murmurs of discontent from the Pixies--

Before Hitomi's Persona sets fire to the cloud, and another of the Pixies detonates outright. "Noo!"

"Oooh yay!" says another, and picks up Yukari's money. It will never be seen again.

But Yukari's ''arrows'' do hit. The Pixie is able to block one--but the second powers right through another, and the crowd is definitely thinning to something a little more manageable at this point, especially after Minato and Orpheus strike back, slamming more of them backward and away. Except... for... The one near Jiro and Suzume advances on them, floating as ominously as a cute girl in blue can--and as it turns out, with the bloodlust in her eyes, that's pretty damned ominous. Don't worry about that yet: there's more attacks to come.

"Ugh you make me so MAD!" one says, and they all suddenly rise up into the air except for that one. "Haaaaah--!"

Light begins to course around the Persona-users ahead, brilliant mirrors rising from the ground--and shining enervating light upon all of them in an effort to destroy them outright!

But Minato, away with Jiro and Suzume, gets a ''blast'' straight to his face of lightning--and this will prevent him intervening directly with the one advancing even now on Suzume and Jiro again...
</poem>

AS: Junes spends Limit on Blood!
AS: Junes spends Limit on Break!
AS: Persona! Junes has used the Light skill Mahama on Yukari Takeba, Minako Arisato, and Hitomi Mandai!
AS: Persona! Junes has used the Elec skill Zionga on Minato Arisato!
AS: Junes: Break removed!
AS: Junes's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack!
AS: Block Best! Minato Arisato takes 128 Elec damage from Junes's Zionga. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Paralyze added!
AS: Block Worst! Hitomi Mandai takes 121 Light damage from Junes's Mahama.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Minako Arisato takes 81 Light damage from Junes's Mahama.
AS: Avoid Worst! Yukari Takeba takes 122 Light damage from Junes's Mahama.
AS: Minako Arisato spends Limit on Shift! Yukari Takeba can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Minato Arisato spends Limit on Shift! Minako Arisato can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Hitomi Mandai spends Limit on Shift! Minato Arisato can use another Weak skill this round!

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>When it's someone Suzume has known since she was about eight, AND she's busy trying very hard not to die, she can be forgiven for leaving the honourific off of Jiro's name.

Also, of all the things she thought to question in Mementos, why bloodthirsty pixies talked like some of the mean girls at school was not one of them. That was pretty much the only thing that made perfect sense to Suzume.

Suzume's first instinct is to snap that she doesn't *need* help, but, well. She *does* need help. "How did you know I'd be in here? *I* didn't know I'd be in here! I don't even know where 'here' is!" Oddly, having something to yell about helps make things feel... nothing in here is normal, but it's at least something she's used to.

Though something appears to have gotten to Yukari, too. Freeloading...? This place doesn't take tickets!

Suzume has gotten Jiro to his feet, which seems to have roused him slightly. He lets out a hiss as he puts his foot down wrong, but he can't look away from the Pixies, and all the Personas. Suzume might have had the guts to defend herself, even in the face of a demon she cannot hurt; he does not. Pressing himself against the wall, he hunches along it, Suzume moving with him.

And they might actually have managed to flee, except for one thing. One Pixie, with bloodlust in her heart.

Jiro flinches away from the light and the thunder. Suzume sees the bolt connect with Minato, the light surround some of the others, and her instinct is to lunge *forward*, not back -

A gun skitters across the floor. She nearly puts her foot on it before she realizes it's there, jams her right-hand tonfa through a belt loop, picks it up, and points it at the Pixie like a pistol. Suzume does not know how to use a pistol; she's holding it like they do in the movies.

*click*

Nothing happens.

Minato said it wasn't a gun, though. And how have all of the others been using it?

She slowly turns it around to point it at herself. "Nobody dies to rescue me," she says, nearly inaudible. "I'll do it - myself..."

Something wells within her. Not a memory, just an instinct, as she jabs the Evoker under her jaw, angled upward, hard enough that she feels the flesh dimple a little bit but not hard enough to hurt. None of this is a good idea, but since when has Suzume let that stop her?

"...Persona! Come out...!"

"Atalanta!"

Suzume squeezes her eyes closed, and squeezes the trigger, all at once.

The explosion of breaking glass is loud in her ears as it *shatters*, shards rising up and away from her. And there's someone there, a woman wearing a short tunic with a decorative silver-and-steel breastplate, matching greaves and bracers and belt, a golden bicep band. She has a lionskin cloak, a furred mane forming the upper bounds of it, which her blonde hair falls into, the two of them nearly indistinguishable. And she has cats-eyes, very very green and vertically slit.

She also has a *bow*, or at least a bowgun, mounted on her right arm, which she raises, firing at the Pixie approaching Suzume and Jiro. It doesn't fire anything as mundane as an arrow, though; it releases a shockwave of cutting wind, as much slashing as gusting as whirling wind whips around Suzume herself.

</poem>

AS: Persona! Suzume Fukura has used the Wind skill Wind Cutter on Junes!
AS: Suzume Fukura's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 79 Wind damage from Suzume Fukura's Wind Cutter.

<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"Good job, Mandai-chan!" Minako calls out to the glasses-wearing girl. Then, she looks sideways at Yukari. There is a moment's pause. Then, she laughs sheepishly. "I-It's fine, really!"

That may not be very convincing. And then she looks at Yukari -- and she hesitates. She is ''really'' panicking. And looking at Minato. But, her brother is moving in calmly.

"Takeba-chan! It's okay, just... just focus!" she calls out. "You can do this!"

Mirrors rise up all around Minako. Linos, half-faded from view, whirls after her as the red-haired girl looks to her left and right quickly. Then, light explodes outward -- slamming into her and knocking her to and fro. She yelps, wincing with the pain. Her eyes dart to Minato.

She sees lightning engulf her brother; sparks fly. She smells ozone. She sees red, feels a pounding in her ears. Then, she looks at the Pixies.

Her eyes flash with anger. "Persona!"

Linos rematerializes behind her. This time, she swings her harp out -- and graceful, doll-like fingers strum across its strings. The notes it plays are light, beads of bright blue-white light flying out -- and shooting between the group of Pixies.

Then, they explode out into bright bursts of nuclear flame, blueexplosions rippling amongst them. And Minako leaps up after that. Her naginata spins over her head -- and as it spins, Linos throws her hand out. Flame wreathes across the blade of the naginata.

As the explosions clear, she slams down, slashing the naginata's blade across one of the Pixies.

She lands, swings her naginata out behind her, and then she looks up -- at Suzume and, indeed, at Atalanta. "She--"

''Oh''.

Her crimson eyes widen -- then she cracks a smile, and she nods to Suzume. "You've got this!"

</poem>
AS: Persona! Minako Arisato has used the Fire skill Trio Freila on Junes! 3 Hits!
AS: Minako Arisato takes 27 damage from Panic!
AS: Tandem! Minako Arisato has used the Fire skill Firebrand on Junes! 2 Hits!
AS: Minako Arisato's turn has ended.
AS: Avoid Neutral! Junes takes 32 Fire damage from Minako Arisato's Trio Freila.
AS: Avoid Best! Junes takes 18 Fire damage from Minako Arisato's Trio Freila.
AS: Block Neutral! Junes takes 34 Fire damage from Minako Arisato's Trio Freila.
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 45 Fire damage from Minako Arisato's Firebrand.
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 45 Fire damage from Minako Arisato's Firebrand.

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
Some things are terrifying to consider, Yukari. What matters is that they *do* work, somehow. There are probably videos of Hitomi demonstrating near-zero talent for any combat weapon as conventionally understood on some Kirijo hard drive somewhere.

"YOU'RE rude," Hitomi shouts back at the Shadows. She probably shouldn't, or at least it feels that way, but at the same time, these are Pixies. Ridiculous little things. Vapid airheads floating in the air. Creatures that wonder just what color your blood is.

She pays for it. The light becomes enormous, suddenly. Too bright, game-cafe-to-outside and it only gets worse from there - she lets out another yelp of pain, and it might have been a scream, if the paralytic waves washing through her didn't mean that it doesn't hurt quite as bad afterwards.

Hitomi doesn't even fall over.

Blinking through the glare, she tries to see Suzume and Jiro. She tries, at least. It's probably stupid, because the enemy's in front of her and still seems to be overmatching them. But she's --

Hitomi's eyebrows lift as Suzume points the Evoker at herself.

What will happen? She hasn't been told.

There was a safety briefing, of course. These things were valuable and could be disruptive. Only use it on official detail and for club purposes.

But what *happens*?

What happens when someone picks an Evoker off the ground and points it at themselves?

Well, one answer is revealed. "ohh," Hitomi says to herself, before shaking her head once and saying, "Get 'em, Fukura!!"

At which point Hitomi raises her hand to her forehead again - her palm faces outwards, incidentally, when she does this, and it hides one of her eyes almost completely - and there is another of those auroral glows. Tyche manifests again, looking downwards, perhaps with just the slightest of smiles, before the fireburst screams outwards, for the center of the 'cloud' of Pixies.

</poem>
AS: Persona! Hitomi Mandai has used the Fire skill Agilao on Junes!
AS: Hitomi Mandai: Paralyze removed!
AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended.

AS: Mind Up! Junes's SP +8!
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 115 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Agilao.
AS: Haze added!

<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
She's definitely gonna wonder if Hitomi is using those weird Shadows later. SHE WON'T SAY IT, but she's definitely gonna THINK IT!

'Got it,'

And at that moment when Minato calls his Persona, Minako calls out to her, "It's okay - I'm okay." Panic loosens from her, cast off with her assistance, her breathing calms down just subtly, and she notices...

"He really..."

Did he do it because she was upset, and freaking out? Or... did he do it because she asked?

She didn't ask him specifically, and yet...

It's a disquieting moment, for her as the Pixies complain about being told to shut up, or call another Rude!

"Mad...?" Suddenly, light courses around them, brilliant mirrors rising, and Yukari tries to move, but before she can, the light converges, slamming into her with intense searing pain.

Io perhaps takes the worst of it, shattering in that moment, as she sees - Minato's Evoker slide away.

"You think YOU'RE mad?"

She's furious-! And- "Wait..." Suzume picks it up and- her eyes grow wide, "Be careful with that-! Don't just-" Not because she's afraid she might hurt herself...

... but because once you do that...

... there's no going back.

It happens, and while she's impressed with the results. She's also... sorrowful, and ''angry'' on some level in equal measure.

Noone ever really has a choice, even when they think they do.

Her Evoker is put back to her head, and- "Please help, Io!"

Blue flames erupt, and Io, despite being shattered moments before - reappears. The Wind she summons comes forth to back up Atalanta, a great Tempest, focused on a small area, trying to shred a Pixie apart.

Then, with her eyes still aglow with borrowed power, she does what she truly is best at...

... Io spreads her arms wide, and a blue - healing glow spreads over Hitomi, Minako, and Minato, knitting wounds and stealing fatigue away.

</poem>
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Wind skill Garula on Junes!
AS: Persona! Yukari Takeba has used the Recovery skill Media on Hitomi Mandai, Minako Arisato, and Minato Arisato!
AS: Yukari Takeba's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Minato Arisato takes 91 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
AS: Take! Minako Arisato takes 91 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.
AS: Yukari Takeba gains 1 Limit from Supporter!

<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"It's unclear why you're talking," Minato points out, to the Pixies, when they fuss over being told to ''shut up.'' Is this rude, too?

He doesn't much think they're friendlier just because they're talking, though. Citation: the look in her ''eyes.'' Minato grasps his blade, moving forward to strike at the Pixie menacing the civilians --

AND THEN --

*zap*

"Gah!" Minato barks, as he's knocked onto his rear end by the force of Zionga. Little stars dance around his head, and he's no help as a protector at all. Suzume will -- Jiro is going to --

By the time Minato blinks the lights out of his eyes and looks back, Atalanta is come. "...", he says, staring at her as she rises up and assaults the Pixie.

You can't fight them like this... that isn't a gun... Persona. Did he know she had the Potential, when he told her all those things? No. But some part of him, intuitively, might have recognised that she had the will to fight in the face of her own demise. It must be the same part of him which isn't ''surprised,'' looking at her Persona made manifest.

She is... someone who can fight.

Thankfully, Hitomi has the words which are taken from him, as he registers that the death he thought he'd witness was averted. (Thankfully, Minako is here to cover him, during those moments he was Knocked Down.) "Right," he agrees, with Hitomi, as he pushes himself upright again. Io's winds wrap about him, and he nods, to Yukari. "Thanks."

And much like Yukari and Suzume are united in their Wind skills, Minato joins the chorus which Minako and Hitomi began, as Orpheus rises behind him -- his previous Summoning still strong enough to call him out -- and strums his lyre, summoning flame upon flame.

</poem>
AS: Persona! Minato Arisato has used the Fire skill Agilao on Junes!
AS: Persona! Minato Arisato has used the Fire skill Agi on Junes!
AS: Minato Arisato's turn has ended.
AS: Mind Up! Junes's SP +8!
AS: Avoid Worst! Junes takes 134 Wind damage from Yukari Takeba's Garula.
AS: Haze added!
AS: Mind Up! Junes's SP +8!
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 97 Fire damage from Minato Arisato's Agilao.
AS: Mind Up! Junes's SP +8!
AS: Block Worst! Junes takes 70 Fire damage from Minato Arisato's Agi.
AS: Haze added!
AS: Junes is unable to continue fighting!

<Pose Tracker> Junes has posed.
<poem>
This place indeed doesn't take tickets. But it'll take lives, if it can.

Atalanta appears, and that broken glass shatters to allow her entry into the world. The Persona's bow manifests, and releases a shockwave of cutting wind--the Pixie that was approaching Jiro and Suzume takes the blast full-on. "Nooo!"

Blue explosions rock the rest of the pixies, one after another, even as Minako and Linos slam their next attack. Another Pixie turns to dust. And Hitomi, too, throws a fireburst for the center--which is blasted even further apart and spreads thanks to Yukari's Garula.

Finally, even as Yukari heals the other, Minato's Orpheus blasts the remaining pixies into dust.

...It's not quiet, here. It's still windy. The danger hasn't passed.

...But nobody's died yet, and probably won't in the next few moments. The Shadows are gone.

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>None of the Pixies remain.

Neither does Atalanta, who has vanished in the wake of Suzume's first, unpracticed summoning. Wind still spins around Suzume for a few moments, tornado-like, before even that breaks up, Mementos' usual steady wind tugging at her hair instead of the whirling breeze.

Suzume is one who can fight. She doesn't know any way to handle her problems except directly. It's just that, this time, just this once, she had the opportunity to hit some of them instead of them being problems that she can't just deck.

"I think," Suzume announces into the sudden silence, "that I am going to fall over now."

She doesn't, quite. But she does take one step back and then drops to a sitting position, head down as she tries to catch her breath. She brings it up a moment later, but doesn't rise. Her eyes are red, whether from stress or simply the wind.

It's Jiro that speaks first, though. "I want to get out of here," he says. "I want to go home! I don't want to stay in this godforsaken place!" He takes one hobbling step, and winces, unsteady at best.

Suzume agrees, but: "I don't know why you were here - I mean, really. But you came in here. So... I owe you." She holds up the Evoker. She still doesn't know what it is, really... Or what she did. Is that something she can... just do? She doesn't try it, though she turns it over in her hand once or twice. "Hey," she calls, toward Minato.

She rises, holding the Evoker up. "This is yours. I'll give it back..."

"...for some answers." She doesn't quite meet anyone's gaze. Not Minato, whose Evoker this is; not Hitomi, who she knows better than the others and has apparently been keeping a secret; not Yukari, who just bailed them out with healing magic (so weird!); not Minako, even though she's just been encouraged by her.

Especially not Jiro, who is looking at Suzume like she's grown a second head. Who wants to know MORE?

"I mean, you have a sword," she admits, a moment later. "You could just take it away, I guess. But it seems like it'd be more work than it's worth to save me and then stab me." Some of her defensive prickle is coming back.
</poem>

AS: Take! Hitomi Mandai takes 91 Recovery healing from Yukari Takeba's Media.

<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Healing light washes over Minako. By now, she is familiar with this -- but she is still grateful. She glances sideways at Yukari, then she gives her a quick nod. "Thanks!"

And the Pixies are all dispatched. Yukari lets out a sigh, wiping at her brow with her hand. A few droplets of sweat are brushed to the floor. "And that's a wrap!"

She brushes her hands off. Then she turns, looking at Suzume, then at Jiro. "We need to get you both out of here. And--" She frowns, at the threat of withholding Minato's Evoker. But, no, be cool. "...there's some people you should talk to, I think."

She glances at her other SEES allies, then back at Suzume. "We'll get you caught up. Can you come back to the dorm with us?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
The bursts of flames and wind - especially the wind, which has a tendency to fan the flames - eventually clear out the Pixies. Destroying them outright! ... Perhaps not; Shadows are kind of confusing, at the best of times.

Even as the healing rests on her, Hitomi's shoulders sag.

She scratches the back of her neck. She also does a cross-body pass in order to put her... ...dice, back in the pouch, which she doesn't mention, even as her eyes return to Suzume and Jiro's position. Jiro speaks -- and he's freaking out. Hitomi seems to understand this. Her eyes don't rest on him, but rather on Suzume.

It's an appraising look. For some reason, Hitomi seems like she's smiling, even if it doesn't quite reach her lips. She takes a deep breath and rests a hand on her hip, still looking at Suzume even as Minako speaks.

"You really ought to," Hitomi says as she walks forwards, towards Jiro -- crouching down a little to get his arm over her shoulders. "I can't let you die here," she continues, pushing her glasses up her nose, "I still have your booster paaacks."

Hitomi's attention turns towards Minato and Yukari. "... Games club stuff," she explains, before straightening up (which may jerk Jiro a little, but he can, potentially, cope). "Um... We're heading back now, yeah?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
"Any time..." She says, managing an awkward smile at Minako and Minato in the aftermath, like she's still... thinking about what just happened. "Yeah. Let's get you two out of..."

...

"... What's a booster pack?" She asks Hitomi, surprised.

But what Suzume does next? Minako tries to deescalate things.

...

"Uhhhh... wellll you don't really need to hold it hostage or anything." Yukari notes, awkwardly, at Suzume's offer, "Now that you did what you did, you're gonna get answers."

A beat.

"Whether you like them or not. And Arisato-kun isn't the kind of guy who would just... stab you."

Yukari definitely didn't like the answers she got. Even if she's yet to receive all of them.

"That's... not what we do here, which... you'll find out."

Hitomi however does explain things shortly, "Oh. That makes sense." She's still trying to work out the context there some.

Then she remembers the dice.

"You're not like, gambling on school property or something, right?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Minato is not surprised that Suzume wants to fall over. That's very common. Even ''he'' fell over, eventually.

But... she holds his Evoker up, and he steps over to her, reaching out to take it.

And to offer her his other hand. (He put his sword away on his belt before he approached. He'll need to hide it in his bag again before he leaves the bathroom. It's fine.)

"Come with us," he says. "We'll explain everything to you."

A look, to Jiro, who Hitomi's already aiding.

"And we'll get you out of here," he adds, for the art student.

Is Hitomi ''gambling?'' This is a questiom Minato does not linger on, though he looks between Suzume and Hitomi, for a moment.

He wonders what Mitsuru would think.

Silently, the Arisato's life of crime is delayed another day.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume, who has absolutely hustled a couple other students at poker, elects to let Hitomi answer Yukari instead. But she *does* meet Minato's gaze when he looks between them instead of looking elsewhere. Just for a moment.

Jiro accepts the help from Hitomi. His ankle isn't broken, just strained; he'll be hobbling for a few days but, with aid, he's able to stand and move with her. He's also just enervated from being in Mementos. So he might end up missing a day or two 'sick' (or end up at Tatsumi Memorial Hospital for the fine doctors that get paid by Kirijo Corp to look at) but he'll be fine. "Appreciated," he says, followed by: "I gave Suzume the money already, to give to you."

Suzume looks more or less innocent. She has not paid Hitomi yet.

Suzume is less injured but more worn down - just better at hiding it. She's got both tonfa hooked through belt loops now to keep her hands free. She clearly is not used to doing it, though; they keep bonking into her thighs. "I can," she agrees with Minako. "My parents will probably get annoyed, but too bad for them." Suzume does not stay at Gekkoukan dorms, usually. (Jiro does - just a different dorm, so he assumes that he's going there.)

She accepts Minato's hand... to give him the Evoker, anyway. It is his, after all.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"Eeh," Hitomi answers Yukari's question, with that weak watery smile you give when you're trying to be agreeable but really don't want to get into it. She takes a deep breath and lets it out -- only to wheeze for a moment as she says, "No!! This is a game we play! You buy cards, and then you -- buy more cards, so you can put them together for game strategies," with a hastiness and a flush to her face as she continues onwards:

"But in the leagues there's more rules about that since they want to keep it fresh so some cards become illegal, but at home or in clubs you can use whatever you want because they called it 'kotatsu Magic' or something like that, I read it in English, but yeah then you might find that some cards you got last year are super expensive now, and you can -- I mean, that's just, um, that's just like investment!! You can't tell!! A lot of rares are total dogshit!"

Hitomi stops after that, looking off to the side of the evil railroad tunnel. The wind tugs loose a strand of her hair.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Minako blinks when Hitomi says 'games club stuff.' She isn't really sure what a booster pack is -- but of the Arisato twins, she isn't the one who will stay inside all day and play a video game. Her brother, now...

She does look at Yukari, though, at the question. Minako considers this for a second. "I'm sure Mandai-chan is innocent!" She glances at Hitomi. "Right?"

She looks back at Suzume -- and then she nods. "Yeah. Well--let's get headed back, then. And... we'll get you caught up."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>"It's like video games with expansions, just on paper," Suzume adds, with a slight bit of embarrassment at being found out to actually like CCGs. "Or, I don't know, Team Fortress guns."

Suzume that is worse.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"Video games on paper," Minato echoes Suzume, his gaze focusing in on her. He waits a moment to see if she'll accept help getting up. Another moment. Three, and he holsters his Evoker, and turns to Hitomi.

"Now we have two critical briefings for the dorm."

Minato ''didn't'' know about card games. ''Until now.''

This mission-critical status will at least mean he ushers everyone out of Mementos right quick.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yukari Takeba has posed.
<poem>
Yukari gets momentarily take aback by the 'Buy cards then buy more cards then put them together for game strategies...'

Then Minako says she's ''innocent''. "Saying that kinda makes it sound more suspicious... Arisato-chan."

More is forthcoming though. "Uh..." Well her opinion has changed some... as Suzume and Minato further backs it up. After a moment...

"I see... I think?"

That's probably the end of it, or at least it would be, but on the way out of Mementos, she drifts towards Hitomi and...

"Uh... Mandai-chan, are you sure you're not being scammed out of your money? The way you describe it reminds me of the time a girl I knew in middle school joined a cult..."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"No way, this is way too lame to be a cult," Hitomi answers Yukari, which is perhaps the worst possible answer in the universe.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume does indeed accept the hand up. She shoves her hand in her pocket afterwards. It's not rude, it's habitual.

"She plays them more than I do," Suzume admits to Yukari. The reason is because Suzume is broke (barring any poker shenanigans, or as she with the last set of cards, money matches at Punch Boxer) and Hitomi is at least slightly less broke. Some particular spark of mischief makes her add, glancing over at Hitomi, "It's only a cult if you go to Worlds."

She doesn't talk much for the rest of the trip out of Mementos, though. She has so many questions whirling around her brain that none of them come out. She does drop back to check on Jiro, but otherwise exits in more or less silence unless addressed.

Suzume keeps the tonfa though. But she has to borrow someone else's bag to put them in so they won't get spotted, because she did not bring hers.
</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:Season 1, Episode 1]]

2025-06-27: Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon

2025-07-01T00:45:22Z

Almacia: Created page with "*'''Log: Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon''' *'''Cast:''' Myunghon Yeo, Ulala Serizawa, Hitomi Mandai, Suzume Fukura *'''Where:''' *'''OOC Date:''' June 27, 2025 *'''IC Date:''' June 01, 2012 *'''Summary''': ''A pair of schoolgirls drop in to the Cardboard Dragon, where Ulala is already trying to make a sketchy purchase of her own.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed. <poem> It's a fine Friday at the Cardboard Dragon in the middle of June..."

*'''Log: Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Myunghon Yeo]], [[Ulala Serizawa]], [[Hitomi Mandai]], [[Suzume Fukura]]
*'''Where:'''
*'''OOC Date:''' June 27, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' June 01, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''A pair of schoolgirls drop in to the Cardboard Dragon, where Ulala is already trying to make a sketchy purchase of her own.''

----

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
It's a fine Friday at the Cardboard Dragon in the middle of June in Japan, by which we mean, WOW, it's kind of unreasonably muggy and therefore the miracle of refrigeration makes shops such as these a little bit of a reprieve from the sweltering heat blasting the old and battered streets of Hirasaka outside.

The Cardboard Dragon isn't Hirasaka's premiere book or card shop -- there's hotter properties elsewhere -- especially because finding it is something of a chore. You gotta go into a back alley that feels like a dragon might be present, and then you gotta go up a fire escape, and hope the plot to a yakuza movie isn't happening. Then you go in and...

Well, the AC is running at full blast, so that's a relief. The store is definitely a depressing plot that used to be an office that was once having the time of its life in the 80's and has since experienced the end of the economic bubble and hasn't seen a lick of renovation, but maybe that's what gives it some charm.

Half the store's dedicated to the bookstore side, which has fancy foreign and... old... books by authors that, for most of these teenagers, they probably haven't heard of, or have the reaction of like 'isn't that written by the guy on the 1,000 yen bill?'. There's nothing written in the last ten years here.

The OTHER half is why everyone else is here: the card store! A bunch of regulars are quietly playing their game in the corner, and there are other open chairs, and there's a young blue-haired woman at the register. There's lots of glass shelves and displays with all sorts of colourful merch that you can spend way too much money on.

And of course, there's the RUMOUR that you can find Rumourmonger Merry and her Skill Cards here...

And then the CREATURE shows up -- a white-haired, lanky bean pole of a person, dressed in a strangely immaculate dress shirt, black tie and dress pants, with a long black suit jacket slung over her shoulders. Her face is half-draped in bandages, and so are neck and hands.

"Oh! Welcome, welcome one and all! Welcome to the Cardboard Dragon!" the Creature exclaims with much aplomb and gusto with a surprisingly practiced half-pirouette. "We can cater to any vice you have on cardboard here... for a reasonable price indeed!"
Hyousuke Suzuki has left for Hirasaka - Main.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
<poem>Sometimes, life takes you in a twist of events. Taking a detour back to Hirasaka to grab something she left at work, Ulala planned to grab some street dumplings off an alleyway before the festival. As she waited for the line to thin out, however, she saw lights on... up a fire escape? Wait, is there a business up there? It's none of your business, Ulala, don't-

Soon, Ulala was inside the Cardboard Dragon, squinting as she peered around. Of course, she knew the rumors about Merry - only vaguely, but she looked into this weird stuff after meeting Baofu.

"So... do you carry any trashy romance novels?"

She'll probably like it here. But first, she has to understand what 'here' is. Her outfit is bold, a green dress with black spider-web patterns, and then her entire makeup and hair situation is just Classic. Therefore, when she sees the Creature...

"Are you... the owner?"

She's surprised, looking between the blue-haired woman (that's fine, she dyes too) and Myunghon. The reason she's surprised...

"Second question. Are you magic?"

Is because this feels like that Time Count guy. It's not the same, is it?!

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
The door opens from the external world, bleeding precious conditioned air. The air hits someone who is squeezing through it, sliding in. "uuuuuuugh" is the comment from that young woman, who is towering (for a schoolgirl) and kind of doughy (by schoolgirl standards). She is big enough that she holds the door open behind her, moving laterally. An awkward pose, but it helps LET ALL THAT EXPENSIVE CONDITIONED AIR OUT --

-- no, it's letting someone else in.

"I can't believe it took so long to get all the way out here," gripes Hitomi Mandai, sweeping some sweaty hair out of her face. She still has most of it in a bun, but 'most of it' is somewhat relative and she may have lost a hairpin somewhere. "But aaaaaat laaaaaaaast uuuuuuuuugh so hooooooooooooooot," she concludes, which is probably an exaggeration.

Once her confederate is inside, she straightens up. Slightly. Her eyes pan around... and those who dare to look at her can see, behind the slightly fogged up glasses, eyes widening. "Fukuraa, look, they've got it. It's Abacin Reborn!!" She gestures at the counter, and behind it, what are HOPEFULLY NOT EMPTY boxes of booster packs for some kind of...

Collectible Card Game.

"I think I see a lot... how many packs did you say you could get in on? We might be able to get a *box* I think I see a closed one--"

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>When the door remains open...

SOMEONE ELSE SNEAKS IN.

Suzume Fukura, who is a good half foot or more shorter than Hitomi, ducks in and ends up guiding the door closed with one foot so that it doesn't slam. Her hair's loose and so she runs her hand through it, shoving it back so that it stays out of her face and doesn't stick everywhere.

"I thought we'd never find it," Suzume grumps, which is an exaggeration - she has been before, she knew where it was, though it's always both out of the way and makes her double-take in case she's actually going the wrong way.

Letting out a breath of air and ruffling her hair a bit, Suzume doesn't *quite* flinch at the question but it's not one she's got a good answer for. "I don't think I can go in for a half box," she admits, thinking about her budget. Which is not great. "But I could get a couple..."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
Myunghon's singular eye twinkles as she claps her hands together and exclaims, "*Trashy* romance novels! Why, perish the doubt, milady! Of course!"

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Doblin. The Decagon House Murders, Yukito Ayatsuji. The Makioka Sisters, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki. Those are... those are not NOT trashy romance novels. They have a sexy, dark allure to them, right? It's all in the *framing* of the mind. The bodice doesn't need to be literal, it can be the metaphorical bodice of the mind to be ripped--

Is she *magic*, though.

Myunghon's eye half-closes as she practicedly flecks her long, bony fingers back to her sleeve, and then in an exaggerated 'PAF' that she makes with her own hand--

TADA!

Spell Cards! Of course, they look just like regular trading cards for a fictitious doujin game involving a pocket dimension in the far South to normal people, but to the Awakened...

"Wow. *Real* magic," Myunghon breathily half-whispers, as she spots the two students -- Gekkoukan? They've come quite a way -- entering and beating the heat through the miraculous power of their AC. The blue-haired girl's the first one to speak up, since Myunghon's busy with Ulala--

"Good afternoooon," she calls with that half-lidded, bored look. She doesn't look any older than either Hitomi or Suzume. She looks perpetually fed up at her boss' antics, is the expression that's been cooked onto her face. She's in a denim dress and has a striped blue and white shirt underneath. "Abacin? Yeah, we just got the shipment in last Thursday. We're gonna run the event this weekend, but we're selling wholesale boxes for 15,000--"

"Since you two've come all the way out here, I'll let those slide for 12,000," Myunghon interjects with surprising ease, her coat billowing gently in the breeze of the air conditioner.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
<poem>Ulala glances over at the books again. "Are you sure? I see... thinking novels." She sighs, though when Myunghon does the 'magic trick' she glances at the cards carefully. Those are-

"...I guess the rumors were true... then again, they're always true around here lately, aren't they?" Shaking her head, Ulala looks over to them. "You've got anything that can..." She considers how to say it, when two teenagers arrive! Oh no, she has to be incognito! She hates being incognito, but it might make her seem cool!

"Uh, go good against Killer...type...Magimon, I think they're called?" Ulala fakes it til she makes it, before looking over to Suzume and Hitomi.

"Oh, are these for that Magimon thing? Where you crack cards and build decks? I never played but it was all the rage in high school. How much does it cost-"

The price is rattled off.

"What?!"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
Hitomi's attention does not turn to the books at all. She has enough books. Books are comfortable and static and boring and tedious and good for construction projects. It is not that she does not like books. It is that instead: Jewel-like objects of wonder.

CARDS.

Hitomi's eyes flick for a moment towards the proffered Spell Cards and she purses her lips. Then, back to that blue-haired girl as she loosely folds her arms beneath her bust, not answering right away other than a slow nod. Visible radiating heat... though it's easing up, even if the 'Sweaty and Gross' status effect will probably take several more pose rounds to clear.

"Araa," she says at the first price - but mid ara, Myunghon lowers the price. Her mouth stays open, a subtle little :o.

Her eyes cut to Ulala. "..." In the clearing fog of Hitomi's glasses, there is mistrust. The natural response to the interjection of the Adult who is not providing a Good or Service. Somewhat more uneasily and less fluidly, she says, "It's a lot, but... you're getting a lot for it. Each of those is fifteen cards, and there's like, thirty-six packs. So if you look at it that way, you're paying like," her eyes turn upwards for a second and a half.

MATH! the job... of a STUDENT! "Like, three-forty a booster, or if you want to be a really nit picky, like 22 yen a card. And you need sixty to play. But, uhm." Her eyes turn to Myunghon. Then back to Suzume...

"Do you think we could call the others...? If we could front the money, we could... hm..." Her lips thin. "Do you think we can trust the others...?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume already knows you are an adult. You cannot fool her, ULALA.

Mostly because no teenager would be allowed to wear that dress by their parents, she's pretty sure. Not that she'd want to, but she's entirely sure that if she showed up with it she'd start *another* argument, and who has time for that? She does give Ulala a look over though, thoughtful, before turning her head slightly to regard the stranger image of Myunghon.

"I definitely can't take half of that," Suzume starts to say, at the 15000. But then there's the 12000, and...

Suzume still cannot afford half of that no matter how much she wants to. Her expression shifts from sullen disdain to thought, though - because she's *really* thinking about it. It's a good price, but unfortunately her parents don't have a lot, Suzume does not exactly rack up a lot of family money, and she does not currently have a job.

"Uuugh," Suzume groans, but not in dismay at the offer. She's thinking about it. "It's a lot, yeah, but..." How much does she even have? She starts doing mental math and briefly debates adding some of her snack budget to it. "I could probably sell a few packs to Yamamoto," she says, which Hitomi at least knows means 'Jiro Yamamoto, who is one of Suzume's gaming buddies and is also a second year student'. "Maybe some to Ito and Kimura too."

She's frowning. Which means she's thinking about it.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
"Mmm, mmm," Myunghon makes a deliberately exaggerated musing of nodding and rubbing her chin at Ulala's quandry, effortlessly folding up the Skill Cards back into her sleeve like they never existed. Maybe she is magic. She also ignores the Thinking Novels comment. DIFFICULT Books that Require Brain Meats... well, she doesn't disagree with that. Like Faulker is what Faulkner does, okay,.

"I think I understand your predicament, miss!" Myunghon says, with a particular, almost jovial emphasis. "I, too, am often stuck at Drake Adventure III, because of those pesky Killers. They can do *so* much damage, can't they? I think your best bet would be to be able to heal or defend your party members. Be the rock that everyone can stand around!"

She's putting so much effort into making it sound like she's not an adult talking about a children's video game.

Myunghon and the blue-haired girl both look content to let Hitomi and Suzume deliberate between themselves, right down to the cost of an individual card. Hitomi's eyes turn back to her, and Myunghon seems happy to just give her a pleasant smile. The others. They're going to have to pool their money... ah, there's something nostalgic about going a far ways away just to get the best deal on something like a Treasure to share with others, on a hot summer day.

...

No there isn't. She never had friends when she was a kid. Hahahaha!! Joke's on... joke's on... her.

Now that she's done making herself sad (internal), Myunghon does point out, tapping the glass cabinet, "22 yen a card, but we do purchase any singles you don't desire, often for quite a lot more." Some of these Mythics are going for thousands of yen. "Aaand I'll be just happy to set aside a box for the lot of you until you're ready, even mail it free of charge to your address in Tatsumi."

This is the manifestation of evil in which she's ensnaring children into games of chance. Just look at her arcana.

She is THE DEVIL.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
<poem>Ulala, despite them being THINKING NOVELS, is eying one of the books longingly, due to the cover and the fact it may look Cool on her bookshelf.

Ulala could definitely not get through Faulkner's 'The Sound and the Fury' but she's going to pretend she can! She picks it up, eying the price as someone who refuses to Leave A Store Empty-Handed due to embarrassment, before turning to Myunghon as she talks... video games. "So, how much do you think it'd cost to... kit myself out for that, then?" She's figuring out the lingo.

She also actually realizes *exactly* what Myunghon is doing. She works in retail. She glances to the teenagers, but...

Adult secrets, right? They need to figure this out themselves.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"Jiro's probably good for it, but he's not in the dorms," Hitomi grouses to Suzume. She purses her lips. She pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She looks at the floor. And then her eyes widen - and stop. She seems to be struggling. She settles on a frown, too.

Hitomi seems to not respond to Myunghon's enthusiastic love of Dargon Warrior Tres, perhaps because that's completely normal to be hella into Dargon Warrior. Even if it's a retro version. Nevertheless, even if it's Dargon Warrior for old ladies, it's still real... to them.

And then Myunghon speaks. Hitomi straightens up! Her eyes all but +_+ out behind her glasses. "Coooooooooould you..."

Hitomi hesitates for a moment. She leans over to Suzume instead, as if her courage ran out mid-sentence. "I have an idea but is she just nice or is it okay to haggle cuz I think this is going to work but we need to cover like half of them. So that's sixty. I've got forty-five... can we do it as a club fund thing?"

"Unless," Hitomi says, with something like anxiety, "If I did a third, not half..."

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume does not work in retail. And her inherent suspicion of... well, a whole lot of things doesn't apply to gaming.

Unfortunately (?) for Myunghon, Suzume actually does know old video games. How does she know these? That particular game must be older than she is... "Try Manusa," she suggests anyway, sounding slightly smug about actually giving advice. "They don't resist it and it shuts them down if it sticks."

She might have missed the subtext with what Ulala was *really* trying to buy...

But, to Hitomi: "*I'm* not in the dorms," Suzume points out. "I just don't live that far away." Also, she spends as much time as possible not at home, because it prevents arguments (until she eventually shows up, and starts a worse argument).

"Probably can't haggle down any further than that," she says, and scowls. "But we could put our names down and see what the others can contribute. I don't mind splitting it more ways if it means we can actually pull it off." Even mailing it... well, Suzume probably wouldn't mind coming back again, if only to browse.

The pull of the DEVIL is strong.

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
"How about that?" Myunghon sounds so chuffed to have Suzume chiming in on their video game conversation. "The young lady's so sharp, thinking of strategies even poor old me can't dream of in a hundred years."

The sharply dressed owner of the Cardboard Dragon swans over to the desk, where she pulls out a piece of note paper and a pen and starts writing it down. "Manusa, doesn't resist it... just make sure it sticks." She rips the paper off the backing, and then folds it and hands it to Ulala. "Let's try that first, and if you're still struggling, feel free to come back and we can brainstorm more strategies, hmm?"

The folded paper, Ulala can feel, is heavier than just a folded up piece of note paper. Myunghon's slipped one of the Skill Cards in the middle in there with it.

It also reads: 'THIS ONE'S ON THE HOUSE'.

At this point in time, though, Hitomi's crooning with ambition and light behind her eyes if she cooould... if she coooould... and then it's back to strategising. Haggling, eh? It is true that it's already a big discount, as Suzume expects -- and this is for new merchandise, not an old set that's past its prime.

Myunghon raises her eyebrow across the room--

And then the blue-haired woman sighs. "... fine! Actually, I also wanted some boosters of my own." A pause. "I'm Gumiho, I go to Kasu High nearby. If I chip in my share, does that get us across the line?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
<poem>As Myunghon steps aside, Ulala makes a face. The girl ruined her purchase...

Up until Myunghon gives her a note, a free Skill Card, and invites her to come back some time.

She knows the play. The first hit is free, she becomes a regular, purchases stuff, and has fallen right into her hands.

It's absolutely going to work, too, as Ulala nods with a smile. "This will definitely help, yeah. Thanks! I'll come back sometime soon... but before I leave, why a book and game shop? Are they a hit these days? You have a really nice setup here..." she says with a light hum.

And then she eyes Gumiho. A sale no matter what, huh? That's an interesting play... she turns back to Myunghon, though she's definitely watching the transaction with amusement. "Looks like you're in luck, huh?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"Right, yeah," Hitomi says to Suzume about the dorms. She purses her lips. "... I think I can cover this. Hold on. Back me up, okay..?? And text Yamamoto cuz I don't want to end up losing out here." After this...

Hitomi advances... towards Myunghon, to whom she says, with that slight quaver of anyone addressing an adult. "So --"

"Waah??" Hitomi then says to Gumiho, blinkblinking at her as if shocked. And then she smiles and leans over and looks at her, raises one finger to her lips, and winks. She saw it. She heard it.

Back to Myunghon. "... So... as a club member, I have a responsibility."

She reaches into her skirt pocket (go with it, Mitsuru probably killed somebody to get one added to the pattern) and brings out her phone case and attached clip of money and transit pass. "If I bought a third of that box... I bet you I can cover the REST of it with all the rares. What do you think? If I can't..."

"I'll sell them to you anyway," Hitomi concludes, rather abruptly, "and we can maybe let Gumiho cover the balance with some boosters...?" But this seems almost afterthoughtish, and her attention is resting on Myunghon.

Until they cut to Ulala for a moment. Her head turns slightly. She pushes her glasses up her nose again. "... Heh. Don't jinx it..."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume has made a contribution using her vast and inexplicable knowledge of RPGs that predate her ability to read. If she knows she ruined Ulala's purchase attempt, she doesn't seem to care -

Oh, wait. It's not ruined after all. Problem solved!

"Seems weird to buy from somewhere you're selling it from," Suzume says, before adding, thoughtfully, "Do you get a discount?" What? You never know. Maybe she's thinking about asking for a job. It'd be a pretty bad commute, though... so maybe not.

She pauses a moment as Hitomi makes... a decision. "You sure? I definitely want in on *some* of them, I just can't drop a whole third of it myself." She doesn't have that much spending money. Especially if she wants to stop at Big Bang Burger or Wilduck on the way home, which she does.

Suzume pulls out her own phone, which is very slightly decorated; it has a chubby bird sticker stuck to it to differentiate it from all the other black-and-silver phones that everyone else has, though since hers is several years out of date it's not actually that easy to mistake for anyone else's anyway. She immediately starts typing on it with her thumbs, demonstrating a surprising speed - surprising to anyone who hasn't seen a teenager going at it, anyway.

"Just don't expect me to completely bail you out if you hit every dud rare in the box," Suzume says. Because she can't.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
Myunghon has one of those quiet, but seemingly powerful smiles as she watches Ulala resolve to come back, planting a finger on her lip gently with a charming little look when the conversation transitions over to why the store.

"I just wanted a bookstore, originally. Authors are my passion," Myunghon is honest about that much, spreading her long, spindly arms and doing a slow, lazy twirl between two bookshelves. "But Gumiho pointed out, 'Boss, ain't no one gonna care about some stuffy old books written by old farts who carked it 100 years ago!'. So I squeezed the juice out of my brain cell like an orange and thought, what kinda paper's hip with the kids these days??"

She's so theatric as she does this, putting her fingers to her temples. "I think the results speak for themselves, hmm?"

But it's deal time, so she's suddenly over towards the till with Gumiho when the camera transitions. Hitomi proposes her plan, and Myunghon's smile just seems to widen from ear to ear. "Oho, I like people who go for the long odds. And you'll be getting the excitement of opening the box right on the premises," she chuckles.

Gumiho has a little smirk to Suzume to say, "Is it? Better to part-time playing with cards you like than flipping burgers, right? And I do get a tiny discount. And sometimes, dibs. Only sometimes, though. Boss is strict."

Her accent's a bit weird, not local, but it's not thick.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ulala Serizawa has posed.
<poem>"Ah, a classic bookstore..." Ulala nods along. It makes sense, sell more things, get more customers, right? (She did not go to business school.)

But as the sale continues on, Ulala just frowns at Hitomi. "If anyone's going to jinx anything..." She doesn't finish that sentence, instead looking through the books some more as an excuse to see if they Buy The Box or not.

She really just wants to know how it pans out.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"That's the great thing here," Hitomi tells Suzume. "You can't lose. If I do get good rares, we can definitely cover it. We can make Yamamoto come up here and show the money, and if it's really close I'll just -- I mean I can cover a LITTLE." Back to Gumiho. "You'd be -- maybe I shouldn't say this in front of your boss..."

Who seems to be... ... going for it... Hitomi gets out what is, clearly, nearly all of the actual money she has, counting out the thousand yen notes and fishing out some change to get up to 4,000. "I'll wash my hands, if you want me to," Hitomi continues, to Myunghon. "It IS pretty hot out there. And I don't want to ruin your near-mints..."

But she seems excited. "What's your rates? For the cards, I mean. If you buy them. I know not everyone, haha, I know not everyone buys them back..." She brings her hands together, a quiet little clap.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>"Guess that makes sense," Suzume agrees with Gumiho. She does not recognize the accent; she *does* think she recognizes the name, but the details aren't coming to her. She may look it up later, if she remembers. "I guess you don't handle the books section." She doesn't seem particularly interested by them, so Myunghon might have the right idea about what the kids these days are here for...

Type type type.

"He's in," Suzume says, after a few moments. "I only had to bully him a little." It is unclear if she is joking. She says it with a straight face and she's not smiling. "So. Good luck." It's not her money so she can afford to let Hitomi play with it.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
'Gumiho' means 'kitsune' in Korean. Pretty easy to look up.

It's totally not her real name. Maybe she's scared of sequence killers. Like the Killers Ulala's talking about. They could be three doors down.

"Well," Myunghon responds to Hitomi as she taps on the glass shelves, behind lock and key, "We do buy them, you are in luck. And there's a ledger by Gumiho for how much each card's worth." This is entertainment for her, the way she understands probability and statistics are cooking in Hitomi's head. When all you have is 4,000 yen to entertain yourself, you wanna make every little bit of it count.

"Just the till," Gumiho answers Suzume. "Can't answer jack about the books. Boring stuff."

"I'm interested now, young miss. Are you going to find the cardboard dragon in there, or are you going to come up with tin soldiers? It's not knowing that makes it exciting," Myunghon smiles, radiating thrill and danger off her posture.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
Hitomi gives Myunghon a bit of a "..." and a weak smile, as if what she says is embarrassing somehow. Then, she gets the cards... and moves to one of the unoccupied tables, rather quickly.

"Good," she tells Suzume, not looking up. "I mean, hopefully this is going to be really easy, unless you want to hustle him. We could charge him two hundred each and come out ahead... eheh... hey, do you want to like, bring the book over? I'm hoping, but -"

The packs begin to unwrap! "You never really can be sure..."

Pack one! The rare is kind of mid. Hitomi ably separates the cards out, stacking the lands to one side, commons in another, uncommons in the other, and the single rare off to the side. Pack two! The same efficient sorting. No real deep reaction yet. Suzume has probably seen Hitomi handle cards at least twice now, so this may not be a surprise to HER. The other gawkers, though...

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume will probably remember what it means (if she doesn't look it up) at like 3am, because that's the way her brain works.

While Hitomi is opening packs, Suzume wanders over to - assuming it's on her side - leaf through the ledger, or at least the list of how much they'll give you for certain cards. This isn't a set Suzume knows so she doesn't know what the expensive cards are, and she wants to see what she's supposed to be keeping her eyes open for as Hitomi sorts through her prizes.

"Yeah, I bet," she agrees with Gumiho. "Some books are okay." But this stuff looks like what they give literature students... advanced literature students. Suzume can feel herself getting sleepy just looking at the covers.

As for the hustling: "Eh. I have the money I brought because I beat him best of ten at Punch Boxer. Seems unsporting to do it twice." Suzume...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
Myunghon's chin lifts a bit as she reclines against a desk in easy fashion, her eye glinting as she watches Hitomi work those cards. Yes... there's someone else inside of there, as she suspected. More than just a student who plays with cards and will forget about them in two years' time when something else hot comes around. Well, she still might, about these cards, but--

The way she touches the cards, understanding that the human being is a disgusting pile of oil and discarded skin cells that will TARNISH the value of this cardboard. The efficient sorting-and-ordering. She could ask her for a perfect riffle shuffle and she could do it without damaging the cards one bit.

Exciting. Really gets her blood going.

"Darn, you got kids you can bully on demand? That's me over at Kasu... I'll get one over 'em Bosses someday, though," Gumiho grumbles.

Gumiho has a SPECIAL SKILL, like she's a Creature card. It simply reads:

If Gumiho gets into a fight, she loses.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
"He just has a bigger allowance than us," Hitomi explains to Myunghon, not looking up from the cards. The cards, the cards... OPEN PACK THREE. Take a little trip into your future with me...

In the end, Hitomi does not get the clutch rare. There's doubtless one in there that would have covered, perhaps not the whole box in a live set, but much of it - she gets a couple thousands and five in the 500-1000 zone. The uncommons are also decent, but, they're uncommons; maybe you need them but how many do you need. By the tenth pack she's looking tense, but after the twelfth, she sorts them out and sags back.

As if her battery ran out.

"Maybe I should have gone for the books," she says to Suzume, mostly.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
<poem>Suzume was really hoping Hitomi pulled it off, because... well, because. But as the person leafing through the listing, she realizes that she hasn't hit one that's *quite* big enough, probably before Hitomi herself does unless she has the rares memorized.

(Which she might. Suzume doesn't. She plays too many games and CCGs are one of the ones she plays least because of the expense.)

"If you're getting a book, I'm not chipping in," Suzume says, with vigor as she steps away from the counter. Her hands would go into her pockets if she had pockets convenient enough to do it; as is she only has one, and she's just put her phone back in it.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
<poem>
Hitomi hangs her head.

This has delayed the inescapable three weeks.

</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
<poem>
Myunghon lets out a luxurious little laugh and pats Hitomi on the shoulder gently, before swanning on over towards the till again. "Come on now! You might not have unearthed the aces you need, but was that not all part of the thrill? In exchange for such a good time,"

Pause. Pause.

"Gumiho will cover the rest."

Gumiho hangs her head, letting out a little mushroom-shaped sigh from her mouth. "Seriously, Boss? You sure don't know how to read the room. A'ight, well, I said I got an interest in this, so let's sort out who wants what."

And thus ends the daring saga of whether or not Hitomi Mandai will become a BIG SHOT. But, hours later, when the two students check their spoils from that strange shop in Hirasaka... a Skill Card's been snuck in there, perhaps by mistake?! Wow, that must have been a really clumsy owner. No wonder she slashes her prices so easily! Is that why her shopfront is such a trash heap from the 80's?
</poem>

[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:Season 1, Episode 1]]