Velvet Room MUSH Wiki - User contributions [en]

2026-01-06: Purrsimmon

2026-01-08T11:29:28Z

Rancakes:

* '''Log: 2026-01-06 Purrsimmon'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Minato Arisato]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
* '''Where:''' Gekkoukan High
* '''OOC Date:''' January 06, 2026
* '''IC Date:''' September 06, 2012
* '''Summary''': ''Minato and Yoko act SO normal.''

----
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Track and Field practice takes a good chunk of Minato's time -- luckily, he has plenty to spend. (Doesn't he?) The afternoon's getting a ''touch'' late by the time he ambles out from the entry to the track, changed out of his gym clothes after hitting the showers but still a bit damp of hair; most of the members of Go Home Club have Gone Home, already, but teenagers who ''have'' clubs have had more reason to stick around.

And as for reasons to go check out the little garden with the persimmon tree near the gym...

Well, Minato's here because he heard a cat. There was a cat. "Here kitty," he says, his face and voice as flat as ever. "Puss, puss, puss."

He crouches by one of the benches, looking beneath it...

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
The Go Home Club is probably nice and all, but what if you don't want to ''be'' home?

Besides, Yoko's dorm doesn't allow for the use of substances that offgas toxic vapors, which disqualifies her from using any of the really interesting sculpting mediums that don't need firing. And that dorm's oven does not reach kiln temperatures. (She didn't have to check. She already knew that.)

So the Art Club is perfect for her, because she can stay in the art room and work until she's ready to go home. Or not-home.

"Senpai," comes a voice from behind Minato. It's Yoko, hands clasped around the strap of her messenger bag, standing between the walkway and the little garden area. "Did it follow you here?" Or! Or maybe it's another cat. Did Yoko ever consider that??
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Fire and toxic gas... sounds dangerous. Girls can be scary, huh...

"I'm not sure," Minato says, as he straightens up. "But I definitely heard it." Miaou... that was definitely a miaou.

He does not look surprised, in the slightest, that Yoko showed up while he was looking for a cat.

This is a normal thing to happen, Minato thinks.

"It isn't in this area..." He goes over to peek around the fence, at the trees growing outside. "Here, puss. Puss puss puss."

"..."

"No dice," Minato concludes, turning back to Yoko. "Let's act normally. Maybe it will show up, then."

He gestures, to her, as his other hand slips back into his pockets. "Were you at Art Club?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It is dangerous. That's why the dorm doesn't allow it! And that's disappointing, because Yoko is a Trained Semi-Professional and more importantly she actually reads the material safety data pamphlets that come with her art supplies. This is why she owns a respirator and uses it.

Do not look up what aerosolized sealants do to healthy pink lungs. Do not.

She stands there on the borderline, watching him search. Minato is also a kind of professional, and it's important to learn from the masters in a field. "..." Ah. The cat must be shy. "Mmm," Yoko hums, nodding, but then she's struck by the dilemma of 'acting normal on command'. "....."

Her lips thin briefly before Yoko takes a breath and stands up a little straighter. "I was. I finished a painting so I had to clean my palette and brushes afterward. And oil takes longer than other paints..." Her loafers scuff minutely against the threshold before she steps into the grass.

"What club are you in, Senpai?"She's doing her best!!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Yeah... scary...

"Oil takes longer... oh, yeah. Because it's older, right?" Minato asks, having half-remembered things he's read on the internet and from history classes and things. "So it's a more complicated process... you must be good at this."

Pause. "Congratulations," he says, another beat of a pause, "on finishing a painting." Normal things which normal people say, normally.

"I just came out from Track practice," he explains, gesturing back to the gym. "Hayase-kun will beat me if I don't practice regularly... if that happens, I'll be letting Miyamoto-kun and Nishiwaki-san down, too."

Mamoru is inspiring Minato to fight harder to inspire his allies, too...

Wonder if there's anything to that?

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Because it's older? She doesn't get it right away, not until he mentions the 'process' of it. "Oh. The chemical process?" Does senpai paint too? "There are more steps to removing oil from brushes. Acrylic and watercolor are made to be washed away easily. There really isn't a 'best' medium, that way." Did she skip a thought? "Because oils take longer to clean up but they also stay workable longer. But they dry and dry and dry without stopping, so eventually they can become brittle."

Yoko suddenly started getting better grades in chemistry once the class moved on to polymers. For some reason. "Ah-- I want to be a professional artist after graduation. So I practice a lot. ...Thank you." Has she ever been congratulated for something like that before - for finishing?

It feels nice. It's satisfying to complete something even if it won't be seen or graded.

'If' he doesn't practice, though. "Does that mean you're the fastest right now? Or is he your rival?" Athletes have rivals, don't they? But it's hard to imagine senpai getting heated about much of anything...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"I figured acrylics were probably invented later, so they'd be easier... you know, like technology." Minato says, dashing all hope that he ''knows.'' "Brittle... they always looked textured when I went to museums. I thought they'd be fun to touch, but since you're not allowed to, I wouldn't know."

He nods, though, when Yoko confirms her ''hopes and dreams.'' "Cool. Sounds like you already know a lot... I do music, not painting, so I don't know the details. But if acrylic is easy to wash away... I'd better remember that the next time we need to decorate stalls for school festival."

That's also a normal thing for a school to have!

"I guess he is my rival," Minato wonders, thinking of Mamoru. "A rival athlete... that's how he's related to me." See, he's officially labelled as the ''Rival Athlete Social Link'' and everything!

From the depths of hell, a second time...

'''Miau'...''

Minato blinks, and looks at Yoko. "Did you hear that?" He asks. "There's definitely a cat."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
...''Is'' that why acrylics are easier to clean? "I didn't really think so hard about it before," Yoko admits. Just because she may know a 'how' doesn't mean she knows a 'why'! "But it makes sense. Like washable markers. More people will try them if they can boast 'easy cleanup', right?" And acrylics are definitely ''the'' popular choice for paints! "Oils do have a reputation for being old-fashioned..."

That's right, oils. You're grandma paint.

"They do have texture! Or they can," she amends, because not everybody trowels it on like Van Gogh. Even though they ''could''. "Varnish protects it somewhat, but..." she trails off, gaze wandering. What was the line from that movie? 'Even the Mona Lisa is falling apart'?

Miau... "I definitely heard it," she nods, attention snapped back to the present. Hands in loose fists at collar height, Yoko casts around for a likely hiding spot.

"...The tree?" she wonders out loud, looking up.

...Not very far up, though. It's kind of a piddly tree.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"They're fancy," Minato agrees, of oil paints.

Does that mean Yoko is also fancy...?

"I wonder if they make oil paintings designed to be touched," Minato says. "That would be neat. But I guess if varnish doesn't protect it completely... probably not."

Mi a uuuuuu. . . . . . . .

Yoko looks up, and Minato looks up.

Slowly, the camera pans up...

... until it reverses view, looking ''down'' on Yoko and Minato...

... and finally swings back around to show a little black kitten curled up between two branches of the persimmon tree.

'Miauuuuuu,' the kitten meows, again, watching them with wide, yellow eyes.

"There's the cat," Minato says, looking up.

He proceeds to spend the next solid minute in silence, looking up to the cat, hands in his pockets.

'Miauuuuu,' the kitten meows, plaintively.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Surely ''someone'' has made an oil painting that should be touched. Not 'can be', but should be! That seems like an exciting new field in traditional art. Maybe it would have to be some other kind of paint though. A compromise.

"Maybe," Yoko says instead, because her mind has just been pried open a little further and now all her thoughts are running wild. How thickly could she layer paint before it had little hope of ever drying completely? What if she did it in layers? Could someone freeze dry paint? What happens if you do?

Everything threatens to stretch out before her or spill on the ground, ideas scattering all over. Exciting!! She wants to try it! She can definitely do it!

And among the ideas still clinging to the branches of the school's persimmon tree, there's... "Inky," she pronounces, smiling up at it. Eyes wide, mouth open on the exhale. It was here all along!

And like Minato, for a moment Yoko is so delighted by the sight that she just kind of. Stares at it.

Until it meows again, and again, this time with feeling. "..." She looks over at Minato. "Senpai, I think it's stuck..."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
Minato wants to touch the art. Let him touch the art. It would be interesting to touch he thinks.

He will be no help here; he wants to touch the art. Let Yoko make the touchable art.

And then...

'Miauuuuu...'

They are spellbound, until Yoko breaks their curse with a word. He blinks, slowly. "Oh."

Minato reaches uuup, above his head... and he's tall enough that he can reach into the tree, because it's only been growing as long as a man's been dead. The kitten fits into his palms quite snugly, as he lifts it from the branch and lowers it back down.

'Miiii!' The kitten meows, happier now he's not SO high up. He's clearly someone's pet, he's ''very'' used to being handled.

"Inky..." Minato repeats, cupping his hands to hold the kitten.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Don't threaten Minato Arisato with a good and only slightly toxic time. Pinky promise, like a real man.

Even as small as the tree is, Yoko is smaller still. She was prepared to go get a stepladder or maybe even climb onto Minato's back but thankfully she won't have to. She would probably expire of embarrassment if she fell off of someone's back at school...

She hovers at his ebow when he's got the kitten securely nestled in his hands. "...Cute..." This just goes to add more evidence that senpai is a Cat Whisperer. "It's so little."

She could fit like four of them in her messenger bag!! That's so small!!

This one looks much more friendly than Enigma. Her hand, paint-smudged, passes gently over its fur once, twice.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
'Miiiii~', Inky the Kitten (probably not his real name) meows, as he headbutts Yoko's hand.

"I think he wants you to pet him more... hang on, I have an idea." Minato slowly tuuurns, because he is ''holding a cat,'' and walks to one of the benches dotted around the persimmon tree. He sits on one end of the bench, and carefully deposits Inky down in the middle.

Luckily, because Minato pets him as soon as he puts him down, he's happy to stick around.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
This is a familiar and welcome variation on Cat Coaxing. And they already coaxed the cat, so it's surely some kind of double success, isn't it? Yoko can't dwell on the idea too long, of course, because as soon as she sits down on the other end of the bench she's rubbing the little guy's cheek with a fingertip.

"It's kind of amazing that whenever I see you, there's a cat nearby," Yoko smiles. "Lucky!"

And lucky for the kitten in particular, because now it has two human devotees to cater to its every whim and pet it and call it G-- Inky.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"Very lucky," Minato agrees. "I don't always find a cat. But I'm always finding cats when you're around... maybe you're good luck."

Inky the black kitten is EXCELLENT luck, judging by how he's lapping up all this attention. He rubs his whole little body against Yoko's hand! He is purring SO loudly now you might expect him to be 100% motor.

"I like cats," Minato adds. "They're always helping me." In Tartarus, that is... when they give him Twilight Shards in exchange for a lift down to the entrance! Is it really rescuing the cats when the cats seem like they're not having that bad of a time...?

"Though I like dogs too," he says. "We have a dog living at our dorm now. His name's Koromaru. He decided to stay with us after he fulfilled his duty to protect the shrine." This might even be a story Yoko knows -- everyone in Iwatodai is familiar with the bravest good boy who kept constant vigil over Nagasaki Park after his owner, a priest, passed away. Minato adds, after a thoughtful moment: "Don't worry. Koromaru-chan is kind to cats, too."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It would be nice to have magical cat-attracting powers! Even if she had to spend almost all of her time petting them and not working or studying, somehow Yoko would find ways to endure...!

"Helping...?" she wonders out loud. Because it's unusual to hear anyone thank a cat, much less several of them. It's very nice of them to help him, even though Yoko isn't sure what they could be helping with. Maybe pest control or inspiration? The kitten is so soft. Her thoughts are turning soft. Fluffy fuzzy sunbeam syrupy. Because it's just that good to pet a tiny kitten with a friend.

"Oh, it's that Koromaru?" THE Koromaru! Even Yoko knows about him. "I saw a photo once... He's such a pretty grey, and with red eyes too." A striking dog, but his face had looked sweet. "But it's good - even if you take the kitten home, that it'll be safe."

Maybe it will grow up riding around on Koromaru's back!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
<poem>
"The one and only," Minato confirms, with a stern nod. "We take him on walks every night, so you might see him if you're ever around the dorm."

He'll take Inky back towards home, when they're done petting him...

... only to be stopped on the way by a grateful student who explains that he ''followed her to school.''

Cat... success!

</poem>
[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Season 1]]
[[Category:Season 1, Episode 1]]

2026-01-06: Purrsimmon

2026-01-08T01:47:30Z

Rancakes: Created page with "* '''Log: 2026-01-06 Purrsimmon''' * '''Cast:''' Minato Arisato, Yoko Hirano * '''Where:''' Gekkoukan High * '''OOC Date:''' January 06, 2026 * '''IC Date:''' September 06, 2012 * '''Summary''': ''Minato and Yoko act SO normal.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed. <poem> Track and Field practice takes a good chunk of Minato's time -- luckily, he has plenty to spend. (Doesn't he?) The afternoon's getting a ''touch'' late by the time he ambles out..."

2025-10-02: Stare

2025-10-27T00:47:35Z

Rancakes:

*'''Log: 2025-10-02 Stare'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Ichika Kawase]], [[Katsuya Suou]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
*'''Where:''' Rengedai, Izakaya Shiraishi
*'''OOC Date:''' October 03, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' July 20, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''A sukeban, a detective, and an artist walk into a bar. Ichika meets an honest cop, Yoko makes a friend, and Katsuya discovers something concerning in a sketchbook.''

----

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Izakaya Shiraishi is bustling at this hour, full of people eating good(?) food and drinking less concerning alcohol. ...Ichika is ''not'' one of those drinking the alcohol, sadly, because she's a minor and Ma'am doesn't go for that. It's just as well; the police are probably still watching her anyway. Either way, she's stepped inside in clearly delinquent-style clothes. A black tanktop with a skull on it, a green miniskirt, thigh-highs, and knee-high boots, along with a bunch of heavy stuff on her wrists and a nice purse. She... did not get that much evidence in Aoba Park, but it's fine.

Super fine!

"Hey Ma'am," Ichika says as she steps inside, a little tired and paranoid. "Could I get the banana ramen again?"

She likes it. And maybe the rumormonger Toku-san would be helpful, too...

Of course, she stands out, even for people who don't know she's relevant to Tsubasa Seki.

But she's at the counter, looking around for a place to sit--there aren't so many of those left at the moment.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Speaking of rumormongers--

Isn't that a familiar-looking man in a dark suit finishing up a discussion with Toku now?

It's been a very, very long day for one Katsuya Suou. However, the wheels of justice are, though delayed, finally starting to turn for a certain person in the custody of Sumaru PD. Regretably, release won't be immediate, but, at least it's almost a certain thing now. And with that immediate problem beginning to clear, it's well past time for Katsuya to find out what the people are talking about in the wake of the attack on the exhibition. An event like that doesn't pass without fresh rumor, however he might like it to be otherwise.

"...I see," he finishes, readjusting his sunglasses. "Well, thank you, Toku-san. This has been informative."

If a little disenheartening, as these sorts of things tend to be. Katsuya wants to think well of his fellow citizens! He really does. But it seems like they're always believing such outlandish...

And he turns his head, and this might be the moment when he notices there are juveniles in the izakaya. Hopefully, no one is thinking to drink illegally! Not under his watchful eye!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It wasn't a very good day today, at school. She spoke to someone who wasn't there, and Yoko isn't sure but she thinks someone saw her. She should have known better. Nobody real would wear a fox mask to school!

...Probably...?

So she decided to ignore her homework for a little bit and take a short trip to wander around some more. It always cheers her up to get out of the bubble of school, dorm, rinse, repeat.

So she wandered, and wandered, and got her sketchbook out and drew for a while, and wandered some more, and drew, and while she doesn't feel ''completely'' better about things, Yoko does feel less bad.

...And hungry. She also feels hungry.

So the warm light and delicious smell spilling out into the street didn't have to do very much work at all to lure Yoko inside 'Izakaya Shiraishi'... Now, seated at a table, she has her sketchbook out again and while she's waiting for her order of tempura to arrive, Yoko is doodling. And watching people, because it's fun.

"...Officer Suou?" Because what's he doing here? He'd said yesterday that Kurou Ryouhara was following her, but isn't it strange to see him again by coincidence, so soon?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika recognizes Katsuya by sight, even if she doesn't know to connect his name to who he is. She remembers him very well because he was at that fight...

And he's talking to the Rumormonger.

Ichika has had kind of a long day, but that catches her attention. As does--

"Sure," Ma'am says. "Coming right up."

"Thanks."

Ichika also feels hungry, and ''almost'' doesn't notice a certain young artist watching people. Almost. Until she says--

Ichika turns towards Yoko in surprise--and then looks to Katsuya, who she was looking at.

"Oh..."

Ichika steps over to Yoko's table, and says, "You know him?" to Yoko. She pauses, and, if Katsuya will happen to come over...

"...Sergeant Suou?" She asks. "You're the co--" Pause. "...officer, who helped out Tsubasa Seki, right?"

"...You don't know anything about them right now, do you? I know you're probably not supposed to talk about it, but--"

She is ''very'' worried.

...of course, standing by Yoko's table, it's possible the server will assume they're all together anyway!!

Ichika'd rather be noticing the sketchbook, but this is important...!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
A familiar voice -- the moreso for having just met her the other day -- catches him offguard. "Hirano-san? Why are you here?" This is the fourth time now, he thinks. But why is it that he's had the sudden feeling that he knows her better than this?

And... why is there a cat in here again? Or, perhaps to be more accurate, why does he ''feel'' like there's a cat in here again? A quick look around the izakaya betrays nothing, and he doesn't think he's caught sight of Ma'am keeping a cat. But...

Yoko's also not the only underaged person here. There's no law against it, of course: drinks are the main attraction, and certainly the proprietress would want to keep the underaged crowd out to avoid 'harshing the experience' of those here here to drink after work, but as long as curfew isn't broken and no one underaged is actually served, there's no problem. And it'll be a while yet before most of the working crowd filters through. The sun hasn't even properly set yet.

Yoko's not the only underaged person here, no. The other girl in here spots him and addresses him, because she knows that he's the one who was trying to help Tsubasa.

"That is correct," he says, looking her over. "And, your name is?"

Tsubasa had mentioned a few names, but Katsuya doesn't have the faces that attach to them. He thinks he might have seen Ichika somewhere before (in the chaos before the fire, maybe? somewhere else?) but he can't quite place it at this point.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Oh, she came over...! Yoko hopes Ichika doesn't look down and see where there's a little doodle of her near the top corner. Usually people are okay with being sketched, but they don't always react as favorably when the art style isn't 'classical' or 'professional'. It's weird.

"Mm-hm," she nods to Ichika, messy hair sliding over her shoulders. Yoko pushes it back and clicks the lead of her mechanical pencil twice. "He's my friend." She doesn't think too hard about what 'friend' means - or why she feels okay with applying it so soon to Katsuya Suou. Isn't it enough that he's friend''ly'' and familiar?

Why is she here? "...I'm hungry," she decides on, after a moment of looking at the surface of her sketchbook. "And it smells good. So I came inside to eat." It doesn't explain why she's in Sumaru, of course. Yoko doesn't want to talk about that.

She's quiet for a few moments, pencil touching down several times in different spots but drawing nothing. "..." It would be better to have company than to eat alone, she decides. "Would you like to join me?" Yoko clicks the pencil mechanism again, and pushes the lead all the way back in against her sketchbook.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika usually comes during the day, so as not to harsh the vibe. She knows she's not an Adult, after all, especially not by the standards of the people who come here. ...But she does like the place, and Ma'am is super-cool...

Lacking much in the way of sensory Resonance, Ichika doesn't detect a cat. Instead, she detects... Ichika glances down at Yoko, and does see the doodle. She is surprised--but not upset.

But she wasn't supposed to check the artist's sketchbook, so, "Ah, sorry..."

But he's her friend? "That's reassuring," Ichika says to Yoko. And then she looks to Katsuya, who has an answer for her. ...Or, a question for her, rather.

"Ichika Kawase," Ichika says after only a moment's hesitation. "Tsubasa-kun is my best friend. They haven't been answering their phone..."

A pause. "So if you know if they're OK, that's enough."

A look at Yoko. Hmmm.

"...Sure," Ichika says then. "Yeah, that'd be great if you don't mind. I should apologize for spying on your sketch anyway, so let me cover the bill."

"Uh, if that's... OK," she says to Katsuya.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Friend, huh... It makes him wonder: does she have any friends her own age, if she's seeking it out from an adult? And... is it ''okay'' for two people to be friends, in spite of an age gap of this size? She's even younger than his brother, if he takes any guess. He doesn't get to dwell on this thought long, though.

"Ichika Kawase... I see. So you are Seki-kun's..." He doesn't quite finish that statement, instead shaking his head. "There's not much that I can say at this point, but... I have done what I could. He should be fine soon." There's still that unpredictable element: there's that slim chance that freedom isn't in the offing, and he doesn't want to lie over something like this. There's nothing quite as terrible as false hope. "I've seen that he's receiving proper care." The injuries, wherever they were collected, definitely needed treatment; it's a small step up, even if it's not 'freedom', just yet. Again, he shakes his head. "Unfortunately, that is all I can say at this time. Please continue to be patient, Kawase-san."

Yoko says she's here because she's hungry. "I see..." Aren't there any better options in Kameya? Perhaps not: he'd heard that a few long-time places here had straight up moved shop. Something about Wang Long fortune-telling stating this wasn't a good place to have a business.

But, would they both like to join her? "Well... I suppose I could stand to eat something," he allows, because he's come out here after work, and it's not as if he's stopped anywhere else along the way. Normally -- about a month and a half ago normally -- he'd have worked late and then picked up something on the way home, or pulled something out of the fridge if it wasn't quite as late as that, and then gone to bed. But his priorities have shifted a bit since, and for ''some reason'' he's had other things to take care of.

"No, if you want to pay for her, that's quite alright," he tells Ichika, assuming that she had meant only to cover Yoko's.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
She's been found out...!! But Ichika doesn't get upset. Maybe she worried for nothing. "I don't mind if you look. But now and then people get upset to be looked at and drawn." Nobody has been angry yet, at least. And anyway, Ichika has more important things to think about than a doodle page.

Her friend is hurt... And Officer Suou knows about it, has done what he can about it. Yoko mulls this over. It's probably all right to ask... maybe... "What happened? Is your friend okay?" (Yoko, if Ichika knew that she wouldn't be asking Katsuya!)

She pushes the other chairs out with her foot, one at a time, when they agree. It's good to have company~ "Ah- it's not a big deal. I can buy my own, but thanks. I'm just glad that you weren't upset." Yoko plays with the edges of the paper for the length of a thought.

"...You can look at it, if you want," Yoko offers to both of them, because she's an art student and this is part of their intricate social rituals. "But it's okay if you'd rather talk." Because ''they'' are not art students (to her knowledge, you never know for sure).

Only then does it occur to her that she's gotten it kind of backwards. She looks up again, green eyes wide in her face. "Oh, I forgot-- I'm Yoko Hirano. It's nice to meet you, Kawase-san."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
"Oh," Ichika answers Yoko. "No, it's cool. I don't mind if people look at me if they aren't weird about it."

But: Seki-kun's... Friend? Gang leader? It could be anything, but one possibility occurs to Ichika as Katsuya uses 'he' for Tsubasa. It's a weird-feeling possibility, admittedly, but it occurs to her all the same that he could assume it.

Not important right now. Ichika's face goes through a few emotions, then concern, then confusion, then relief. "Oh..."

Receiving proper care. "...OK," Ichika says after a moment. "Thanks. I know you're not supposed to say anything to me. ...Your 'colleagues' already picked me up trying to find them..." She looks down. "But I guess if they found them, they didn't need me anymore. Anyway thanks, Suou-san. I will. As long as I know they're OK, I can... wait."

She doesn't trust most police, but she saw him fighting the Joker, and he helped Tsubasa against their dad. Though...

"They--Uh." Pause. "'He' likes it if people use 'they'." She doesn't have to go into why or gender or anything, it's just a preference. That's probably fine to say.

Ichika doesn't quite have the Guts to offer to cover Katsuya too, even though he did just do her a favor. She was more concerned with whether he'd be OK with eating with a delinquent like her anyway.

Her friend... "My friend was caught up in something scary," Ichika settles on. "...Some people think they did something bad. But they didn't."

Her hands at least are now mostly unbandaged; there's a couple of band-aids about her fingers, but they're no longer all bandaged up like they were before.

"I'd like that," Ichika says of the sketchbook. "My... friend," she says, a different friend? "Is an artist. He lets me look at what he draws sometimes. He draws me sometimes, too."

Ichika will find Castor familiar when she spots him! First, she smiles at Yoko. "OK," she says. "Well, you don't have to ask me twice to save some money..."

A look back to Katsuya. "It's nice to meet both of you," she settles on. "I live around here, so..."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"Hmm. Do they?" he remarks, observing the interaction between the two girls. He hadn't ever given it much thought one way or another: he saw art students when he was at university drawing people, animals (well, at the zoo, that is) or buildings. It's just what artists do, in order to build up their skills. ...But he supposes he could see how it could be taken poorly, particularly if someone felt they were made fun of in the drawing.

Friend, he's settled on, lacking other context.

"It is... something like that. There is little that I can say that is certain, or for public knowledge. My colleagues are..." A somewhat complicated expression makes its way onto his face. Katsuya is silent, then shakes his head, then glances away. "My apologies. I can say no more at this time. But I can assure you that your friend will be alright." At least, in the sense that they're no longer being interrogated quite like that, and that they're receiving treatment. And clothing. He'd been sure to take care of that.

It will just take a little bit of time.

--Wait. Did he get it wrong? "'They'? I had thought..." he says, looking back over at Ichika. Staring at her, actually. He'd made an assumption as a matter of course, it seems. But... that's a little confusing, isn't it? Yet...

"I... I see," Katsuya says, uncertainly. "Then... 'they'." Even if he doesn't understand it, it's not proper to be rude, is it?

He lets Ichika take point on explaining to Yoko: there's a lot that she shouldn't, and can't, know about. "We are doing what we can to straighten out the matter. But... it will take time," he says at last, because it's the only thing he can say without getting into the twisted mess that is his own workplace, these days. Or, well, the supernatural aspect of it all.

So Yoko will pay her own way, after all? Ichika takes the sketchbook first. It'll be a moment before it's passed his way and Katsuya spots something startling on a page. Well. Two startling things, actually.

"It's good to meet you as well," he tells her. And then, Katsuya pauses. "Kawase-san," he asides, because as a Kasugayama student she'd know this better-- maybe. "Does the owner here... keep a cat?"

It's driving him a little crazy, perhaps, this sense that there's still a cat in here, somehow. Somewhere.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Something bad happened, Yoko assumes. Maybe Ichika's friend even got blamed for it. Or maybe people just assumed the worst about them in some other way. Yoko's expression goes strangely sober for someone her age, and she toys with her pencil some more. "I hope they get better soon and things can go back to normal." Because if Officer Suou is ensuring they get medical care, that friend is maybe not at home... She's inferring kind of a lot, but the basics and important things seem pretty clear.

It must have been a different friend, she realizes. Because of 'he'. This is more familiar territory (art); Yoko is neutral on the subject of pronouns because they aren't as important to her as to some people. "Do you do life modeling? Or does he draw you from memory?" Maybe Ichika is her friend's muse. That's so exciting! Yoko looks brighter already.

"Usually people don't seem to mind. But sometimes they don't like it. I try not to look like I'm staring when I do it, but sometimes I just... forget not to." It's easy to get caught up! Like when Katsuya asks about a cat. There's one here too?!

Yoko ducks her head to peek under the tables. ...Nothing? :(
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
For public knowledge. Ichika guesses he can't say too much. That complicated expression suggests he has things he'd ''like'' to say, but... She's not going to push him. Not when he's already going out on a limb, and she's fresh from the interrogation room yesterday. His assurance at least means something. "Thanks," she says.

But, he'd thought--and he's staring. Ichika glances to the side, a little uncomfortable with that stare, until he agrees to it. Then, "...Yeah," Ichika answers. "Thanks!"

She seems to relax almost immediately.

"I wish I could talk to them," Ichika admits when Katsuya says it will take time. "I'm really worried..." But, she'll have to wait. "Uh, sorry. I'm not trying to pressure you. It's just hard."

She certainly isn't going to mention the supernatural parts either. ...Not because of Yoko or Katsuya, but because they're in public, and because Ichika doesn't want to give herself away.

Yoko, though, says something kind. Ichika smiles at her. "Thanks," she says, and she's appreciative, warm.

But a different friend! "I do," Ichika confirms. "I model for him sometimes. He mostly sculpts, but he likes to draw sometimes, too. He lets me keep some of the drawings, too."

Sometimse they don't like it... Hmmm. There's also the matter of staring. "I think it's nice. It shows I'm making an impression. ...But staring... Better not, if you can remember."

A pause. A... cat?

"Uh?" Ichika says, and glances over to Ma'am. Then she shakes her head. "No," Ichika says. "I think she has a picture of an American President's cat somewhere...?"

"But like, she couldn't keep pets, it's a restaurant."

Yoko confirms!? "...Right?" Ichika checks.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"They should be fine," he tells Yoko, "now that they are being treated." And once the SIU proves that there are discrepancies in the story his colleagues have concocted, it will be harder for them to hold Tsubasa. ...How did it get to be like this, though? This isn't how the police should be behaving...

He shakes his head at Ichika's apology. "No, I understand. It is... a difficult situation. Please rest assured that we are doing what we can do settle things properly." As opposed to the manner which his colleagues had wanted to settle them. He had been looking for ways to circumvent things indirectly, but the fact is that without the SIU's involvement, it wouldn't come as quickly, or possibly, at all. Perhaps he could have leveraged a request for medical assessment as a stall, but, it was possible even that could have been at least partially cut out under him since he'd been blocked from professional involvement with the case.

As Akechi's 'monitor' at the department, though, he's suddenly gained a lot more control over what happens.

The conversation about Ichika's art student friend he lets glide on past him: it's none of his business, but it's good that Yoko could find a friend, perhaps, though Ichika, isn't it? And he's also reminded that Myunghon had given him a name of an experienced Persona user in the area to speak to. Another thing to follow up on, once he has some time.

On the subject of staring, though, he opines, "It can be seen as rude, sometimes. I would hope that having a pencil and pad of paper in hand would eliminate any worries they might have, though..." Maybe he's just used to seeing people working on sketches, though. He ''is'' an officer, and art can be an important part of his department's trade, especially when it comes to rendering a potential suspect's apparent appearance.

But, is there a cat?

Ichika's got him there. It ''is'' a restaurant, and, to be fair to himself, he had thought something similar at the outset. "...Yes, of course," he echoes, shaking his head as if answering his own question. "This ''is'' a restaurant..."

But that nagging sense that there's a cat in here somewhere hasn't departed just yet. This has been happening a lot lately, hasn't it? Perhaps it's stress. There's an awful lot to be stressed about, and he's always been prone to it. Frowning still, he glances up at the ceiling as if he could find a better answer there for what's going on, but...

"...She has a picture of an American President's cat? Why?"

Somehow more pressing questions also have their own way of arising.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"I mostly sculpt too! But sketching is more portable. And a foundation skill." Everything gets planned first before being fabricated. A bit like the old saying, 'measure twice, cut once'. And Yoko will keep trying to improve her manners, even when it's difficult. "I don't want people to feel stared at. I don't like it either."

There is no cat. At least, not where Yoko can spot it. She checked thoroughly and everything!

She wouldn't mind spotting the presidential cat portrait though.

You'd think that art supplies out and ready to be used would be enough to assure people of Yoko's harmless intentions! True, often enough it does, but Yoko han't really discovered a foolproof way to ensure a good interaction.

She'll get it right eventually. She'll keep trying until she does!

But first there were the cookie-cutters from yesterday. And the cat at Iwatodai Station. Officer Suou had known a lot about cats, or so it had seemed. "...Officer Suou," Yoko asks, "Do you like cats?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
It is a difficult situation. She doesn't often do the 'rest assured' angle. And indeed, she looks kind of mixed-emotions about it. "...I think you actually mean it," she says. Then she stops, "I mean--uh, of course you..." A moment later, the tall girl sighs. "...You know what I mean, I think." It's how police ''should'' be behaving, as opposed to how they shouldn't. "So thanks."

"Oh, really?" Ichika asks of Yoko's sculpture, and smiles wider. "Sei-kun's really great at it. He says that, too--that if he can draw it it's easier to do anything else with it..." A pause. "I like your style," she says. "The little 'me' is cute." But she wonders--Castor... Does Yoko, too, have a Persona?

It is a restaurant, meanwhile, but...

"Well," Ichika says, "She used to be the President's secret lover," Ichika relates the rumor seriously. "So, I guess he gave her a picture of the cat because he liked her...?" Pause. "I dunno. Anyway, did you want to look too?" She offers the sketchbook.

It's a good question though. Cats...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
He's a little taken aback at that comment. Are the police always... that bad to some of the young people? When he'd been a young man, he'd of course admired the police. But perhaps the police of then are not the same as they are now. "...I am only doing what is my job, as a public servant," he answers her, shaking his head. Which means that most other officers aren't, then?

It's because Ma'am was the American President's lover, Ichika explains. He blinks. This bit of information is new to him. Katsuya tries not to look over at Ma'am, but even he has his limits and if just in passing looks her way. "I... I see..." he says, accepting the sketchbook. It's not a question he wants further information regarding, it would seem.

His gaze skims over the sketches. They're good for someone her age, he thinks? He's never had much talent in this direction himself, and it's not something his brother has tried his hand at (at least, not so far as he knows). There's a small sketch of Ichika there, and it's not bad-- it's in a 'cute' style, isn't it? He can tell who it's supposed to be, in any case. He turns the page.

And stares at it like he's seen a ghost.

Is that-- it looks just like Helios, his own Persona. Could it be an accident? A coincidence, he tells himself, his gaze moving to another, more detailed sketch, and he almost forgets to breathe for a moment. It's... that young man's Persona. Shinjiro. He looks up at Yoko in silence, his gaze asking a strange, mute question before it moves to Ichika.

But... neither of them have a Persona. He would feel Resonance if they did.

...Right?

Discomfited, he pages through a few more sketches before returning the sketchbook to Yoko.

"These are... quite good. Though, some of them are strange to me. Do you get your inspiration from somewhere?"

But she has a question of her own for him. Does he like cats? "Well..." he hazards, as if put on the spot (because he is). "I... do like them. Why do you ask?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"Thank you," she tells Ichika sincerely. "Doodling like that is fun. I wish more people did it," Yoko confesses after a moment's thought, "Because I'd like to see the kinds of things they were thinking about." And also maybe because she'd like to trade sketches and drawings with more people than just other artists!

As Ichika passes over the sketchbook, Yoko peeks across the restaurant at Ma'am. "...She's kind of glamorous," she decides quietly, "Even now." Shiraishi's proprietress still cuts a striking figure, even if the corners have been softened a bit by middle age. The dark lipstick, the multi-toned hair, the lay of her buttonup's collar... Yoko can imagine what she might have looked like twenty years ago. Beautiful, sharp and vibrant.

But she's careful not to stare!

Though while she's busy evaluating Ma'am, Katsuya is receiving some visions of his own...!

Helios is roughed out in shapes and tones, the ideas that make up a figure. Yoko only got a few moments to look at him (it?) before Helios faded. Castor, however... the horse and rider are eerily detailed. Textures are replicated faithfully, from the gloss of the Persona's horn to the padded doublet and flowing hair. There are a few smaller, quicker sketches of it from other angles, but the largest one carries the same sense of unknown dangers as the real thing.

She must have gotten a very, very good look at it.

Yoko's gaze skitters away from him when Katsuya asks about her 'inspiration'. "I guess they just occur to me. I don't really think too hard about it..." She takes the book back from him, but leaves it closed at her place in front of her.

"Because you knew what kinds of things cats like to eat," even if she's still undecided on the matter of a cat's 'refined palate', "And you got those cookie cutters for Yeo-san. (She may have peeked, a little.) "Kawase-san, do you like cats too?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika smiles at Yoko. "I don't have the knack," she admits. "But I really like getting to contribtue. It's why I like letting Sei-kun draw me." Yuusei Ogawa, that is. "...Well, maybe not the only reason."

Ichika has had some very bad experiences with police. ...Even before she started standing out. But now, Katsuya simply says he's only doing his job, and Ichika nods. "Yeah."

Ma'am is awesome. Even Yoko seems to think so! Ichika says, "She's really cool..."

Glamorous is right.

And Katsuya looks like he's seen a ghost. Ichika tilts her head slowly. "Hm?" she wonders, noticing the question but unaware what it is. Still...

"Imagination should be a little strange," Ichika thinks. "It's how you know you're seeing more than just what's already out there." Pause. "...Or something."

Cats. "I do," Ichika says, "Though I've never had one. The dorms don't allow pets, either..."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Glamorous? He can't help it. He takes a proper glance over at Ma'am. If he excludes their current environment and trades her current attire (not that it's poorly-chosen, mind) for something more modern... or actually, he thinks more 'classic' would be appropriate. He turns his attention away from her again. Glamorous. Yes, perhaps a little bit like a movie star from the golden age of Hollywood, or at least, that's the impression he's gotten. "Perhaps so," he remarks at last. But... still, an American president?

Certainly, not the current American president. It would have had to have been the one from a decade or more ago, Katsuya thinks, reflecting back on his knowledge of politics overseas. 'Those' sorts of scandals were more typical back... then.

Then, he's distracted by the sketchbook proper, and has no more time to think about political scandals in other countries, decades ago.

There's a chance it could be coincidence. 'Helios' is blurrier, more uncertain. It's more of a concept than a fleshed-out idea. Is it so hard to conceive of a cat with horn-like ears, in a suit?

Castor, on the other hand. Of Castor, there can be no mistake. She must have seen the Persona, somehow. Doesn't that mean she has a Persona? Or-- is it possible that someone without a Persona can still see one? He doesn't know all the ins and outs. Baofu would know. Others might well know. But he has no idea if what he's looking at here is proof that she has a Persona, or...

The 'or' is a potent or, isn't it.

He hands the book back over as she tries to explain. Or rather, doesn't. "I see... some of the figures in here are very interesting. I'm not certain I've seen anything like them," he says, glancing again at Ichika, who returns a somewhat confused look of her own. "It's not from... a cartoon, is it? Is it something you're more familiar with, Kawase-san?" He hasn't watched cartoons since he was quite small, himself: he'd outgrown that rather quickly.

But she just says that imagination should be a little strange. "I suppose that's true," he says, and perhaps as homicide detective, he'll be forgiven his apparent lack of imagination on these matters.

He likes cats. This isn't the half of it, actually.

Yoko continues, saying that he knows what cats like to eat, which isn't so bad, or weird, really. But she goes on: there's the matter of the cat-shaped cookie-cutters. "Th--those were for someone else," Katsuya blurts out in a hurry, looking like she'd said something way, way more embarrassing, like that she'd spotted him coming out of a very different sort of store. "I thought that-- for a woman, something cute might..." He trails off, largely because he's probably dug this hole a bit deeper, considering who he'd told Yoko those were for, and the fact that he's just admitted to buying something for a woman.

(In truth, he'd bought them because he thought the kitty-cat cookie cutters were cute, too...)

"Ah, I see. That's the case where I live, as well." Also, he's allergic, so it's a non-starter all around.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
There are many ways to contribute to art culture! What would artists draw if there were no models? Museums would be full of nothing but endless bowls of fruit...! "Is Sei-kun someone from school?" She isn't sure if Ichika is still in high school, or maybe college.

"...I like that." There's something a little secretive and pleased about the smile Yoko aims down at her sketchbook. "And there's nothing wrong with being strange, anyway." Even if it goes against cultural norms and the get-along ethos of Japanese society.

It feels a little bereft to have no pets around. Yoko knows ''why'' dorms can't allow them (imagine a building full of dogs barking and cats yowling and birds screeching and fish... doing whatever it is that fish do. Blorping?) but she does miss the family cats at her parents' house. "I've been trying to make friends with a cat that lives at Iwatodai Station. If you ever visit there, I'll try to introduce you." She almost got to pet it the other day!

Any day now, Yoko is sure of it. Senpai's method is foolproof. And Yoko isn't a more powerful fool than anybody else.

"I don't really have time to watch television much," she denies, shaking her head. Her hair's still messy...! "I go see things or attend Art Club after school, and then there's homework. ...But sometimes I let something play while I draw or work."

But she tilts her head at him, staring, when he gets flustered. "But they were for Yeo-san, right?" What's wrong with giving something cute to someone else??
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
"Oh!" Ichika starts. "He's a friend from where my parents live, not my school," she explains. "He goes to Gekkoukan High. His name's Yuusei Ogawa. He's in the Art Club there. He was my boyfriend for a while." A pause. "I go to Kasugayama."

Strange... Something good about that. Glamorous! Ichika doesn't really know anything about American presidents. She's sure they spend a lot of time watching baseball in New York with their guns.

Ichika... ''did'' see those sketches, but at the time she didn't think much of it. Katsuya's questions make her realize maybe she should think twice.

"I, uh..."

Is she familiar with it? Ichika is not actually that ''great'' at lying all the time. She looks at Yoko. Then she looks at Katsuya. "I don't think they're from a cartoon," she says.

But cats! "Ooh," Ichika says, hearing the intrigue of ''buying a gift for a woman''. It cheers her up a little. "I don't watch a ton of TV either," she supplies for Yoko. "Just some dramas."

But... "A gift for a woman," Ichika repeats then. "I'd like it if a guy got me something like that. You probably did good! I guess the police have time for romance, too?"

She smiles. But then--wait.

"Oh, you know Yeo-san?" She's surprised. She didn't think they were the kind of person to know police...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
She doesn't think they're from a cartoon, or anything like that. "I see..." And Yoko says that she doesn't have time to watch a lot of television. It's not possible that she imagined those out of nothing, is it? That it's some kind of coincidence? No, she has to have seen their Personas. ...But when? They weren't in a supernatural space (outside the environs of the Cardboard Dragon, that is) so that does beg the question of 'how this happened in the first place'.

He decides to change the subject, not certain what else he can ask: doesn't he understand what's happening, if not why? "I am in the same situation, I suppose," he says, of the TV. Though he does have his television on sometimes, when he's working in his apartment's excuse for a kitchen. It's nice, to have some sound on in the background.

"Ah, so that cat is still there?" Katsuya says, not evading the allegations of him being some sort of cat-lover.

"Yes, they were for Yeo-san."

Yoko, fortunately, doesn't latch onto what he's trying to say as emblematic of anything ''deeper''.

Ichika, unfortunately, does.

"Ah--" Katsuya gets out, looking as if he's just received a terrible shock. "No, no, that's not-- what I mean to say is... it isn't... like that." For one thing, he's a little too busy right now to be in a relationship with anyone (particularly still coming off his breakup from last year, which had gone badly if he's any judge himself). For another, isn't it... it wouldn't be proper, is the long and short of it, for a handful of reasons, among them being the fact that his workplace is still regards Myunghon as a potential criminal element. If word got out that they had-- ''this'' sort of relationship -- it'd make it impossible help them out again in any way.

And things being what they are, Katsuya might even have to resign. Even the appearance of impropriety can be the same as actual impropriety. He knows this lesson well.

"Yeo-san is an acquaintance of mine," he explains at length. "Since she is wounded, I wanted to... help her with her errands." Just your normal helpful local police officer, eh?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
He goes to Gekkoukan High. "Ogawa-senpai??" Yoko is easily redirected (momentarily) from Katsuya's embarrassment over Being Caught Doing Nice Things For Others (the shame!!). "He's really good! We haven't talked much but his work stands out." That means... if he's the 'Sei-kun' Ichika was talking about...

Yoko looks at Ichika. Really looks at her, particularly her face... and hands. "No way... you were the model for 'Grasp'?" Everybody liked that one...! "He did such a great job modeling the knuckles! It's really easy to forget them or to make them too knobby, but he made them look graceful and strong without unbalancing the overall composition."

So Yoko ''can'' be talkative...!

Of course Kawase-san wouldn't have seen them on television, Yoko thinks privately. Nobody else could have seen them. (Probably.) ...It's kind of strange though, isn't it, that Officer Suou was so intrigued. Maybe he's not someone who appreciates non-classical art? That or everything unusual is just anime to him.

"Yes. Arisato-senpai and I have been feeding it. I can't bring it to my dorm, but maybe Senpai could. I think he lives in one of the nicer ones?" She heard something like that once, or maybe it was just a rumor.

But maybe Ichika's gotten the wrong impression, and it's making Katsuya uncomfortable. "It didn't seem like that, when we were at the Cardboard Dragon. Officer Suou was formal like usual, but there wasn't anything romantic about it." Is she taking pity on him...?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ogawa!! Yoko knows him! Ichika smiles at Yoko. "Oh, that's great!" Then, Yoko gets it and--"Oh!" She flushes a little. "Yes," Ichika answers of her hands. "He's really good, isn't he? He told me it's because my hands were already graceful, but I think if he weren't so good they'd have come off more ordinary..." She likes her hands, but she doesn't think of them as terribly ''special''. "But it feels really nice that a piece I got to help with was so successful."

But the cat! "Oh, Arisato? ...That wouldn't be Minato Arisato, would it?" Small world!

Oh, for Yeo-san. But Ichika realizes a ''different'' issue. ...That comes later. First...

"Oh, it's not?" Ichika looks a little disappointed. She was already starting to ship the nice detective with his mystery woman. Besides; if it were Yeo-san...

Ichika opens her mouth and closes it; she can't quite think of a way to correct Katsuya on the matter of Myunghon, but at the same time, calling them a woman seems not quite right either...

Well, if Myunghon wanted him to know, he'd know, right? ...Or should she say something? It takes her a minute to settle.

Yoko chimes in. "My bad," she says. "I'm just kinda romance brained," she admits. "When you have someone you like, you see it everywhere. ...Uh, but anyway. No, I know Yeo-san, too. It's cool of you to help."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
He regards Yoko curiously, as if he didn't expect all ''that'' out of her just like that. Which... is pretty much what just happened. She's pretty quiet by nature, or at least, this is his read on her regarding, but it seems once the conversation pivots towards something she's interested in, she's capable of saying quite a lot. "Is that so," he remarks, entering the conversation he'd largely been content to remain outside. "It does make sense. Construction and assembly of a three-dimensional is not a skill easily acquired. It requires an understanding of how the final product must look and how best to reach that state," he says, because he knows a little bit about that himself. ...Just not with clay, or stone.

(He's never done anything completely out of pocket, like a wedding cake, but he's done due diligence in other areas. Macarons alone require a steady hand...)

She'd mentioned her sempai before, that he'd been the one to first correctly attract the cat with some takoyaki. It ''had'' worked, he must admit, but is it really healthy for a cat to be used to eating takoyaki...?

(they were good takoyaki)

But alas, a misconception has taken place. Yoko comes to his rescue! ...Though, there's something embarrassing about him needing it, as well, so it's sort of a zero-sum game. "Hirano-san, this isn't..." he tries to protest, but there's no heat in it at all. Besides, Ichika has apologized. Katsuya shakes his head. "No, no, it's... quite alright." It's not, but he's not going to ''say'' that to a young woman he barely knows. "It is... an understandable mistake." Considering the way he'd put it, anyway.

As with Tsubasa, there's something that still hasn't been explained to him about Myunghon, alas. "So you know her as well? ...Well, as a public servant, if I can be of use..." he says, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

It's because he hasn't been ''entirely'' honest, truth be told. He's getting skill cards from Myunghon as an exchange, for baking lessons from him.

"Are you a player of card games, then?" He makes it sound so stiff!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"That's something that only a model for a piece gets to know," Yoko says, smiling another version of that secret smile. "What it's like to see the 'you' that lives inside someone else."

Oh, Ichika knows him too? "Yes. Senpai showed me how to coax out the cat. He calls it Enigma." Yoko and Katsuya have had a serious discussion about cat names. "I wonder if the cat's let Senpai pet it yet...?"

Ichika is just romance-brained, then. "Love and romance are enduring themes, and they make people create. If you love something you'll dedicate a lot of time to it. You can make really amazing things if you're passionate." That may be simplifying things a bit - there's a lot more to great works than just enthusiasm!

"Yes, that's it - it's work to be able to make and understand two-dimensional forms, and it's even harder to work in three. Talent only gets you so far." Yoko fidgets a little bit with the corners of her closed sketchbook, before giving in and opening it to leaf through. The pages with Castor and Helios are near the middle of the book, and the preceeding pages are crammed full. "Anybody can make art. With enough studying and practice, you can even surpass someone who relies solely on talent."

It's not what? She considers Katsuya, but he just says everything's all right. Yoko doesn't think he's being entirely truthful and her expression indicates that. But she knows that there are things people don't want to talk about, and maybe that's one of them. Maybe he's just saying it's okay to change the subject.

Yoko turns back to Ichika. "Have you seen 'Vampire Bakers'? The illustrations are really good!"

She's got your back, Officer Suou.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
It is a difficult skill! But Yoko has the emotional context that makes it special for Ichika, and Ichika smiles at her. She gets it. "Right," Ichika answers. It's a feeling that's easy to want to experience again sometime... But Katsuya, Ichika wonders if that means he does some kind of art. She already kinda put her foot in it once though, so she doesn't ask.

Enigma the cat. "Oh, cool. He's pretty cool." She's appreciative of Minato. He's a good... friend.

Enduring themes! Ichika is glad to put it to the general instead of specific, since she'd be a little embarrassed in this company to talk about 'who' that is. ...Art's an easier topic, too. "Right. Tsubasa-kun is really good at art, too, and I can tell they get better by practicing."

But it's all right, he says, and while she suspects it might not be, she's going to take the graceful out offered her. "Thanks," she says. Instead, "I do. But..."

Vampire Bakers!!

"No, but I'm thinking of trying them," she says. "I know Yeo-san because... Well..."

"Personal stuff," she settles on. "Yeo-san's cool. But I might try the games. I'm definitely not smart enough for the books."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Engima just isn't cute enough as a name, in Katsuya's estimation. (The cat had been very cute, cuter than he'd expected.)

"Well... that is true," Katsuya says, of love and romance. "Some of the more enduring myths and legends, to say nothing of stories, are about love. In fact, even the founding myth of this country is, at its core, a story about love, isn't it?" It's just also a sad story about love, and how bonds that once tied can be shattered forever.

So it's no surprise such tales have prompted art and music. And of course, when you love someone, it's normal to want to make things for them, too. Isn't it?

Ichika's a lot closer than she thinks. It's just probably not the art that she's likely to think of first-off. And if she's listening to the rumors, Katsuya is into... photography as hobby?? (He's not, but at this rate it might end up happening. Reality is at the mercy of public opinion, in this city.)

"Seki-kun is also an artist? I wouldn't have guessed. Do they sculpt as well?"

Talent only gets you so far.

Katsuya, himself, wouldn't describe himself as talented. Not... naturally. He has his gifts, like everyone does, but he's never coasted a day in his life. Everything he's gotten, he's gotten through effort, and a lot of it. "Yes," he says, as if agreeing what what Yoko's saying. "That is correct, I believe. ...You are quite perceptive, Hirano-san." Or maybe she's just buttered him up in the right way to appeal to his ego, which is also a definite possibility.

He's concealing something here. But he'd just said he's not dating Myunghon, so it's probably less fraught than a relationship would be. Some under-the-table agreement, maybe (yes, actually)? Or some secret plot between the two of them (no, it's definitely not that)?

Not card games. Not the books, either... Yeo-san's advice, maybe? If she's Tsubasa's friend, and Tsubasa he knows is close to Myunghon, then that, he decides, might be the key to this particular puzzle. Someone who is a mentor to one might be the mentor to another. It's as easy as that, even if Myunghon is an unorthodox mentor, indeed. "Ah. So that's how it is... I am not one for games like that, myself," he answers, shaking his head. The books are a little more his speed. Well, some of them, anyway.

And the skill cards might just prove the difference between life or death.
</poem>

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

2025-10-02: Stare

2025-10-04T11:53:42Z

Rancakes: Created page with "*'''Log: 2025-10-02 Stare''' *'''Cast:''' Ichika Kawase, Katsuya Suou, Yoko Hirano *'''Where:''' Rengedai, Izakaya Shiraishi *'''OOC Date:''' October 03, 2025 *'''IC Date:''' July 20, 2012 *'''Summary''': ''A sukeban, a detective, and an artist walk into a bar. Ichika meets an honest cop, Yoko makes a friend, and Katsuya discovers something concerning in a sketchbook.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed. <poem> Izakaya Shiraishi is bustling at t..."

*'''Log: 2025-10-02 Stare'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Ichika Kawase]], [[Katsuya Suou]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
*'''Where:''' Rengedai, Izakaya Shiraishi
*'''OOC Date:''' October 03, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' July 20, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''A sukeban, a detective, and an artist walk into a bar. Ichika meets an honest cop, Yoko makes a friend, and Katsuya discovers something concerning in a sketchbook.''

----

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Izakaya Shiraishi is bustling at this hour, full of people eating good(?) food and drinking less concerning alcohol. ...Ichika is ''not'' one of those drinking the alcohol, sadly, because she's a minor and Ma'am doesn't go for that. It's just as well; the police are probably still watching her anyway. Either way, she's stepped inside in clearly delinquent-style clothes. A black tanktop with a skull on it, a green miniskirt, thigh-highs, and knee-high boots, along with a bunch of heavy stuff on her wrists and a nice purse. She... did not get that much evidence in Aoba Park, but it's fine.

Super fine!

"Hey Ma'am," Ichika says as she steps inside, a little tired and paranoid. "Could I get the banana ramen again?"

She likes it. And maybe the rumormonger Toku-san would be helpful, too...

Of course, she stands out, even for people who don't know she's relevant to Tsubasa Seki.

But she's at the counter, looking around for a place to sit--there aren't so many of those left at the moment.
Ichika Kawase
Ichika Kawase is...
-180cm (5'11") tall
-About 18 years old
And she has...
-Long bleached-blonde hair, loose past her waist, with dark brown roots
-Deep red eyes
-Dramatic, dark red eyeshadow and black liner
-Black lipstick
-Pale skin
-Pierced ears without earrings
And she's wearing...
-A black, sleeveless top that exposes her midriff, sporting a skull
-Cargo pants in dark green, snug at the hips and baggy in the leg with...
-A studded black leather belt
-Soft black-and-white sneakers, laced
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Speaking of rumormongers--

Isn't that a familiar-looking man in a dark suit finishing up a discussion with Toku now?

It's been a very, very long day for one Katsuya Suou. However, the wheels of justice are, though delayed, finally starting to turn for a certain person in the custody of Sumaru PD. Regretably, release won't be immediate, but, at least it's almost a certain thing now. And with that immediate problem beginning to clear, it's well past time for Katsuya to find out what the people are talking about in the wake of the attack on the exhibition. An event like that doesn't pass without fresh rumor, however he might like it to be otherwise.

"...I see," he finishes, readjusting his sunglasses. "Well, thank you, Toku-san. This has been informative."

If a little disenheartening, as these sorts of things tend to be. Katsuya wants to think well of his fellow citizens! He really does. But it seems like they're always believing such outlandish...

And he turns his head, and this might be the moment when he notices there are juveniles in the izakaya. Hopefully, no one is thinking to drink illegally! Not under his watchful eye!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It wasn't a very good day today, at school. She spoke to someone who wasn't there, and Yoko isn't sure but she thinks someone saw her. She should have known better. Nobody real would wear a fox mask to school!

...Probably...?

So she decided to ignore her homework for a little bit and take a short trip to wander around some more. It always cheers her up to get out of the bubble of school, dorm, rinse, repeat.

So she wandered, and wandered, and got her sketchbook out and drew for a while, and wandered some more, and drew, and while she doesn't feel ''completely'' better about things, Yoko does feel less bad.

...And hungry. She also feels hungry.

So the warm light and delicious smell spilling out into the street didn't have to do very much work at all to lure Yoko inside 'Izakaya Shiraishi'... Now, seated at a table, she has her sketchbook out again and while she's waiting for her order of tempura to arrive, Yoko is doodling. And watching people, because it's fun.

"...Officer Suou?" Because what's he doing here? He'd said yesterday that Kurou Ryouhara was following her, but isn't it strange to see him again by coincidence, so soon?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika recognizes Katsuya by sight, even if she doesn't know to connect his name to who he is. She remembers him very well because he was at that fight...

And he's talking to the Rumormonger.

Ichika has had kind of a long day, but that catches her attention. As does--

"Sure," Ma'am says. "Coming right up."

"Thanks."

Ichika also feels hungry, and ''almost'' doesn't notice a certain young artist watching people. Almost. Until she says--

Ichika turns towards Yoko in surprise--and then looks to Katsuya, who she was looking at.

"Oh..."

Ichika steps over to Yoko's table, and says, "You know him?" to Yoko. She pauses, and, if Katsuya will happen to come over...

"...Sergeant Suou?" She asks. "You're the co--" Pause. "...officer, who helped out Tsubasa Seki, right?"

"...You don't know anything about them right now, do you? I know you're probably not supposed to talk about it, but--"

She is ''very'' worried.

...of course, standing by Yoko's table, it's possible the server will assume they're all together anyway!!

Ichika'd rather be noticing the sketchbook, but this is important...!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
A familiar voice -- the moreso for having just met her the other day -- catches him offguard. "Hirano-san? Why are you here?" This is the fourth time now, he thinks. But why is it that he's had the sudden feeling that he knows her better than this?

And... why is there a cat in here again? Or, perhaps to be more accurate, why does he ''feel'' like there's a cat in here again? A quick look around the izakaya betrays nothing, and he doesn't think he's caught sight of Ma'am keeping a cat. But...

Yoko's also not the only underaged person here. There's no law against it, of course: drinks are the main attraction, and certainly the proprietress would want to keep the underaged crowd out to avoid 'harshing the experience' of those here here to drink after work, but as long as curfew isn't broken and no one underaged is actually served, there's no problem. And it'll be a while yet before most of the working crowd filters through. The sun hasn't even properly set yet.

Yoko's not the only underaged person here, no. The other girl in here spots him and addresses him, because she knows that he's the one who was trying to help Tsubasa.

"That is correct," he says, looking her over. "And, your name is?"

Tsubasa had mentioned a few names, but Katsuya doesn't have the faces that attach to them. He thinks he might have seen Ichika somewhere before (in the chaos before the fire, maybe? somewhere else?) but he can't quite place it at this point.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Oh, she came over...! Yoko hopes Ichika doesn't look down and see where there's a little doodle of her near the top corner. Usually people are okay with being sketched, but they don't always react as favorably when the art style isn't 'classical' or 'professional'. It's weird.

"Mm-hm," she nods to Ichika, messy hair sliding over her shoulders. Yoko pushes it back and clicks the lead of her mechanical pencil twice. "He's my friend." She doesn't think too hard about what 'friend' means - or why she feels okay with applying it so soon to Katsuya Suou. Isn't it enough that he's friend''ly'' and familiar?

Why is she here? "...I'm hungry," she decides on, after a moment of looking at the surface of her sketchbook. "And it smells good. So I came inside to eat." It doesn't explain why she's in Sumaru, of course. Yoko doesn't want to talk about that.

She's quiet for a few moments, pencil touching down several times in different spots but drawing nothing. "..." It would be better to have company than to eat alone, she decides. "Would you like to join me?" Yoko clicks the pencil mechanism again, and pushes the lead all the way back in against her sketchbook.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika usually comes during the day, so as not to harsh the vibe. She knows she's not an Adult, after all, especially not by the standards of the people who come here. ...But she does like the place, and Ma'am is super-cool...

Lacking much in the way of sensory Resonance, Ichika doesn't detect a cat. Instead, she detects... Ichika glances down at Yoko, and does see the doodle. She is surprised--but not upset.

But she wasn't supposed to check the artist's sketchbook, so, "Ah, sorry..."

But he's her friend? "That's reassuring," Ichika says to Yoko. And then she looks to Katsuya, who has an answer for her. ...Or, a question for her, rather.

"Ichika Kawase," Ichika says after only a moment's hesitation. "Tsubasa-kun is my best friend. They haven't been answering their phone..."

A pause. "So if you know if they're OK, that's enough."

A look at Yoko. Hmmm.

"...Sure," Ichika says then. "Yeah, that'd be great if you don't mind. I should apologize for spying on your sketch anyway, so let me cover the bill."

"Uh, if that's... OK," she says to Katsuya.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Friend, huh... It makes him wonder: does she have any friends her own age, if she's seeking it out from an adult? And... is it ''okay'' for two people to be friends, in spite of an age gap of this size? She's even younger than his brother, if he takes any guess. He doesn't get to dwell on this thought long, though.

"Ichika Kawase... I see. So you are Seki-kun's..." He doesn't quite finish that statement, instead shaking his head. "There's not much that I can say at this point, but... I have done what I could. He should be fine soon." There's still that unpredictable element: there's that slim chance that freedom isn't in the offing, and he doesn't want to lie over something like this. There's nothing quite as terrible as false hope. "I've seen that he's receiving proper care." The injuries, wherever they were collected, definitely needed treatment; it's a small step up, even if it's not 'freedom', just yet. Again, he shakes his head. "Unfortunately, that is all I can say at this time. Please continue to be patient, Kawase-san."

Yoko says she's here because she's hungry. "I see..." Aren't there any better options in Kameya? Perhaps not: he'd heard that a few long-time places here had straight up moved shop. Something about Wang Long fortune-telling stating this wasn't a good place to have a business.

But, would they both like to join her? "Well... I suppose I could stand to eat something," he allows, because he's come out here after work, and it's not as if he's stopped anywhere else along the way. Normally -- about a month and a half ago normally -- he'd have worked late and then picked up something on the way home, or pulled something out of the fridge if it wasn't quite as late as that, and then gone to bed. But his priorities have shifted a bit since, and for ''some reason'' he's had other things to take care of.

"No, if you want to pay for her, that's quite alright," he tells Ichika, assuming that she had meant only to cover Yoko's.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
She's been found out...!! But Ichika doesn't get upset. Maybe she worried for nothing. "I don't mind if you look. But now and then people get upset to be looked at and drawn." Nobody has been angry yet, at least. And anyway, Ichika has more important things to think about than a doodle page.

Her friend is hurt... And Officer Suou knows about it, has done what he can about it. Yoko mulls this over. It's probably all right to ask... maybe... "What happened? Is your friend okay?" (Yoko, if Ichika knew that she wouldn't be asking Katsuya!)

She pushes the other chairs out with her foot, one at a time, when they agree. It's good to have company~ "Ah- it's not a big deal. I can buy my own, but thanks. I'm just glad that you weren't upset." Yoko plays with the edges of the paper for the length of a thought.

"...You can look at it, if you want," Yoko offers to both of them, because she's an art student and this is part of their intricate social rituals. "But it's okay if you'd rather talk." Because ''they'' are not art students (to her knowledge, you never know for sure).

Only then does it occur to her that she's gotten it kind of backwards. She looks up again, green eyes wide in her face. "Oh, I forgot-- I'm Yoko Hirano. It's nice to meet you, Kawase-san."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
"Oh," Ichika answers Yoko. "No, it's cool. I don't mind if people look at me if they aren't weird about it."

But: Seki-kun's... Friend? Gang leader? It could be anything, but one possibility occurs to Ichika as Katsuya uses 'he' for Tsubasa. It's a weird-feeling possibility, admittedly, but it occurs to her all the same that he could assume it.

Not important right now. Ichika's face goes through a few emotions, then concern, then confusion, then relief. "Oh..."

Receiving proper care. "...OK," Ichika says after a moment. "Thanks. I know you're not supposed to say anything to me. ...Your 'colleagues' already picked me up trying to find them..." She looks down. "But I guess if they found them, they didn't need me anymore. Anyway thanks, Suou-san. I will. As long as I know they're OK, I can... wait."

She doesn't trust most police, but she saw him fighting the Joker, and he helped Tsubasa against their dad. Though...

"They--Uh." Pause. "'He' likes it if people use 'they'." She doesn't have to go into why or gender or anything, it's just a preference. That's probably fine to say.

Ichika doesn't quite have the Guts to offer to cover Katsuya too, even though he did just do her a favor. She was more concerned with whether he'd be OK with eating with a delinquent like her anyway.

Her friend... "My friend was caught up in something scary," Ichika settles on. "...Some people think they did something bad. But they didn't."

Her hands at least are now mostly unbandaged; there's a couple of band-aids about her fingers, but they're no longer all bandaged up like they were before.

"I'd like that," Ichika says of the sketchbook. "My... friend," she says, a different friend? "Is an artist. He lets me look at what he draws sometimes. He draws me sometimes, too."

Ichika will find Castor familiar when she spots him! First, she smiles at Yoko. "OK," she says. "Well, you don't have to ask me twice to save some money..."

A look back to Katsuya. "It's nice to meet both of you," she settles on. "I live around here, so..."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"Hmm. Do they?" he remarks, observing the interaction between the two girls. He hadn't ever given it much thought one way or another: he saw art students when he was at university drawing people, animals (well, at the zoo, that is) or buildings. It's just what artists do, in order to build up their skills. ...But he supposes he could see how it could be taken poorly, particularly if someone felt they were made fun of in the drawing.

Friend, he's settled on, lacking other context.

"It is... something like that. There is little that I can say that is certain, or for public knowledge. My colleagues are..." A somewhat complicated expression makes its way onto his face. Katsuya is silent, then shakes his head, then glances away. "My apologies. I can say no more at this time. But I can assure you that your friend will be alright." At least, in the sense that they're no longer being interrogated quite like that, and that they're receiving treatment. And clothing. He'd been sure to take care of that.

It will just take a little bit of time.

--Wait. Did he get it wrong? "'They'? I had thought..." he says, looking back over at Ichika. Staring at her, actually. He'd made an assumption as a matter of course, it seems. But... that's a little confusing, isn't it? Yet...

"I... I see," Katsuya says, uncertainly. "Then... 'they'." Even if he doesn't understand it, it's not proper to be rude, is it?

He lets Ichika take point on explaining to Yoko: there's a lot that she shouldn't, and can't, know about. "We are doing what we can to straighten out the matter. But... it will take time," he says at last, because it's the only thing he can say without getting into the twisted mess that is his own workplace, these days. Or, well, the supernatural aspect of it all.

So Yoko will pay her own way, after all? Ichika takes the sketchbook first. It'll be a moment before it's passed his way and Katsuya spots something startling on a page. Well. Two startling things, actually.

"It's good to meet you as well," he tells her. And then, Katsuya pauses. "Kawase-san," he asides, because as a Kasugayama student she'd know this better-- maybe. "Does the owner here... keep a cat?"

It's driving him a little crazy, perhaps, this sense that there's still a cat in here, somehow. Somewhere.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Something bad happened, Yoko assumes. Maybe Ichika's friend even got blamed for it. Or maybe people just assumed the worst about them in some other way. Yoko's expression goes strangely sober for someone her age, and she toys with her pencil some more. "I hope they get better soon and things can go back to normal." Because if Officer Suou is ensuring they get medical care, that friend is maybe not at home... She's inferring kind of a lot, but the basics and important things seem pretty clear.

It must have been a different friend, she realizes. Because of 'he'. This is more familiar territory (art); Yoko is neutral on the subject of pronouns because they aren't as important to her as to some people. "Do you do life modeling? Or does he draw you from memory?" Maybe Ichika is her friend's muse. That's so exciting! Yoko looks brighter already.

"Usually people don't seem to mind. But sometimes they don't like it. I try not to look like I'm staring when I do it, but sometimes I just... forget not to." It's easy to get caught up! Like when Katsuya asks about a cat. There's one here too?!

Yoko ducks her head to peek under the tables. ...Nothing? :(
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
For public knowledge. Ichika guesses he can't say too much. That complicated expression suggests he has things he'd ''like'' to say, but... She's not going to push him. Not when he's already going out on a limb, and she's fresh from the interrogation room yesterday. His assurance at least means something. "Thanks," she says.

But, he'd thought--and he's staring. Ichika glances to the side, a little uncomfortable with that stare, until he agrees to it. Then, "...Yeah," Ichika answers. "Thanks!"

She seems to relax almost immediately.

"I wish I could talk to them," Ichika admits when Katsuya says it will take time. "I'm really worried..." But, she'll have to wait. "Uh, sorry. I'm not trying to pressure you. It's just hard."

She certainly isn't going to mention the supernatural parts either. ...Not because of Yoko or Katsuya, but because they're in public, and because Ichika doesn't want to give herself away.

Yoko, though, says something kind. Ichika smiles at her. "Thanks," she says, and she's appreciative, warm.

But a different friend! "I do," Ichika confirms. "I model for him sometimes. He mostly sculpts, but he likes to draw sometimes, too. He lets me keep some of the drawings, too."

Sometimse they don't like it... Hmmm. There's also the matter of staring. "I think it's nice. It shows I'm making an impression. ...But staring... Better not, if you can remember."

A pause. A... cat?

"Uh?" Ichika says, and glances over to Ma'am. Then she shakes her head. "No," Ichika says. "I think she has a picture of an American President's cat somewhere...?"

"But like, she couldn't keep pets, it's a restaurant."

Yoko confirms!? "...Right?" Ichika checks.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"They should be fine," he tells Yoko, "now that they are being treated." And once the SIU proves that there are discrepancies in the story his colleagues have concocted, it will be harder for them to hold Tsubasa. ...How did it get to be like this, though? This isn't how the police should be behaving...

He shakes his head at Ichika's apology. "No, I understand. It is... a difficult situation. Please rest assured that we are doing what we can do settle things properly." As opposed to the manner which his colleagues had wanted to settle them. He had been looking for ways to circumvent things indirectly, but the fact is that without the SIU's involvement, it wouldn't come as quickly, or possibly, at all. Perhaps he could have leveraged a request for medical assessment as a stall, but, it was possible even that could have been at least partially cut out under him since he'd been blocked from professional involvement with the case.

As Akechi's 'monitor' at the department, though, he's suddenly gained a lot more control over what happens.

The conversation about Ichika's art student friend he lets glide on past him: it's none of his business, but it's good that Yoko could find a friend, perhaps, though Ichika, isn't it? And he's also reminded that Myunghon had given him a name of an experienced Persona user in the area to speak to. Another thing to follow up on, once he has some time.

On the subject of staring, though, he opines, "It can be seen as rude, sometimes. I would hope that having a pencil and pad of paper in hand would eliminate any worries they might have, though..." Maybe he's just used to seeing people working on sketches, though. He ''is'' an officer, and art can be an important part of his department's trade, especially when it comes to rendering a potential suspect's apparent appearance.

But, is there a cat?

Ichika's got him there. It ''is'' a restaurant, and, to be fair to himself, he had thought something similar at the outset. "...Yes, of course," he echoes, shaking his head as if answering his own question. "This ''is'' a restaurant..."

But that nagging sense that there's a cat in here somewhere hasn't departed just yet. This has been happening a lot lately, hasn't it? Perhaps it's stress. There's an awful lot to be stressed about, and he's always been prone to it. Frowning still, he glances up at the ceiling as if he could find a better answer there for what's going on, but...

"...She has a picture of an American President's cat? Why?"

Somehow more pressing questions also have their own way of arising.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"I mostly sculpt too! But sketching is more portable. And a foundation skill." Everything gets planned first before being fabricated. A bit like the old saying, 'measure twice, cut once'. And Yoko will keep trying to improve her manners, even when it's difficult. "I don't want people to feel stared at. I don't like it either."

There is no cat. At least, not where Yoko can spot it. She checked thoroughly and everything!

She wouldn't mind spotting the presidential cat portrait though.

You'd think that art supplies out and ready to be used would be enough to assure people of Yoko's harmless intentions! True, often enough it does, but Yoko han't really discovered a foolproof way to ensure a good interaction.

She'll get it right eventually. She'll keep trying until she does!

But first there were the cookie-cutters from yesterday. And the cat at Iwatodai Station. Officer Suou had known a lot about cats, or so it had seemed. "...Officer Suou," Yoko asks, "Do you like cats?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
It is a difficult situation. She doesn't often do the 'rest assured' angle. And indeed, she looks kind of mixed-emotions about it. "...I think you actually mean it," she says. Then she stops, "I mean--uh, of course you..." A moment later, the tall girl sighs. "...You know what I mean, I think." It's how police ''should'' be behaving, as opposed to how they shouldn't. "So thanks."

"Oh, really?" Ichika asks of Yoko's sculpture, and smiles wider. "Sei-kun's really great at it. He says that, too--that if he can draw it it's easier to do anything else with it..." A pause. "I like your style," she says. "The little 'me' is cute." But she wonders--Castor... Does Yoko, too, have a Persona?

It is a restaurant, meanwhile, but...

"Well," Ichika says, "She used to be the President's secret lover," Ichika relates the rumor seriously. "So, I guess he gave her a picture of the cat because he liked her...?" Pause. "I dunno. Anyway, did you want to look too?" She offers the sketchbook.

It's a good question though. Cats...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
He's a little taken aback at that comment. Are the police always... that bad to some of the young people? When he'd been a young man, he'd of course admired the police. But perhaps the police of then are not the same as they are now. "...I am only doing what is my job, as a public servant," he answers her, shaking his head. Which means that most other officers aren't, then?

It's because Ma'am was the American President's lover, Ichika explains. He blinks. This bit of information is new to him. Katsuya tries not to look over at Ma'am, but even he has his limits and if just in passing looks her way. "I... I see..." he says, accepting the sketchbook. It's not a question he wants further information regarding, it would seem.

His gaze skims over the sketches. They're good for someone her age, he thinks? He's never had much talent in this direction himself, and it's not something his brother has tried his hand at (at least, not so far as he knows). There's a small sketch of Ichika there, and it's not bad-- it's in a 'cute' style, isn't it? He can tell who it's supposed to be, in any case. He turns the page.

And stares at it like he's seen a ghost.

Is that-- it looks just like Helios, his own Persona. Could it be an accident? A coincidence, he tells himself, his gaze moving to another, more detailed sketch, and he almost forgets to breathe for a moment. It's... that young man's Persona. Shinjiro. He looks up at Yoko in silence, his gaze asking a strange, mute question before it moves to Ichika.

But... neither of them have a Persona. He would feel Resonance if they did.

...Right?

Discomfited, he pages through a few more sketches before returning the sketchbook to Yoko.

"These are... quite good. Though, some of them are strange to me. Do you get your inspiration from somewhere?"

But she has a question of her own for him. Does he like cats? "Well..." he hazards, as if put on the spot (because he is). "I... do like them. Why do you ask?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"Thank you," she tells Ichika sincerely. "Doodling like that is fun. I wish more people did it," Yoko confesses after a moment's thought, "Because I'd like to see the kinds of things they were thinking about." And also maybe because she'd like to trade sketches and drawings with more people than just other artists!

As Ichika passes over the sketchbook, Yoko peeks across the restaurant at Ma'am. "...She's kind of glamorous," she decides quietly, "Even now." Shiraishi's proprietress still cuts a striking figure, even if the corners have been softened a bit by middle age. The dark lipstick, the multi-toned hair, the lay of her buttonup's collar... Yoko can imagine what she might have looked like twenty years ago. Beautiful, sharp and vibrant.

But she's careful not to stare!

Though while she's busy evaluating Ma'am, Katsuya is receiving some visions of his own...!

Helios is roughed out in shapes and tones, the ideas that make up a figure. Yoko only got a few moments to look at him (it?) before Helios faded. Castor, however... the horse and rider are eerily detailed. Textures are replicated faithfully, from the gloss of the Persona's horn to the padded doublet and flowing hair. There are a few smaller, quicker sketches of it from other angles, but the largest one carries the same sense of unknown dangers as the real thing.

She must have gotten a very, very good look at it.

Yoko's gaze skitters away from him when Katsuya asks about her 'inspiration'. "I guess they just occur to me. I don't really think too hard about it..." She takes the book back from him, but leaves it closed at her place in front of her.

"Because you knew what kinds of things cats like to eat," even if she's still undecided on the matter of a cat's 'refined palate', "And you got those cookie cutters for Yeo-san. (She may have peeked, a little.) "Kawase-san, do you like cats too?"
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ichika smiles at Yoko. "I don't have the knack," she admits. "But I really like getting to contribtue. It's why I like letting Sei-kun draw me." Yuusei Ogawa, that is. "...Well, maybe not the only reason."

Ichika has had some very bad experiences with police. ...Even before she started standing out. But now, Katsuya simply says he's only doing his job, and Ichika nods. "Yeah."

Ma'am is awesome. Even Yoko seems to think so! Ichika says, "She's really cool..."

Glamorous is right.

And Katsuya looks like he's seen a ghost. Ichika tilts her head slowly. "Hm?" she wonders, noticing the question but unaware what it is. Still...

"Imagination should be a little strange," Ichika thinks. "It's how you know you're seeing more than just what's already out there." Pause. "...Or something."

Cats. "I do," Ichika says, "Though I've never had one. The dorms don't allow pets, either..."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Glamorous? He can't help it. He takes a proper glance over at Ma'am. If he excludes their current environment and trades her current attire (not that it's poorly-chosen, mind) for something more modern... or actually, he thinks more 'classic' would be appropriate. He turns his attention away from her again. Glamorous. Yes, perhaps a little bit like a movie star from the golden age of Hollywood, or at least, that's the impression he's gotten. "Perhaps so," he remarks at last. But... still, an American president?

Certainly, not the current American president. It would have had to have been the one from a decade or more ago, Katsuya thinks, reflecting back on his knowledge of politics overseas. 'Those' sorts of scandals were more typical back... then.

Then, he's distracted by the sketchbook proper, and has no more time to think about political scandals in other countries, decades ago.

There's a chance it could be coincidence. 'Helios' is blurrier, more uncertain. It's more of a concept than a fleshed-out idea. Is it so hard to conceive of a cat with horn-like ears, in a suit?

Castor, on the other hand. Of Castor, there can be no mistake. She must have seen the Persona, somehow. Doesn't that mean she has a Persona? Or-- is it possible that someone without a Persona can still see one? He doesn't know all the ins and outs. Baofu would know. Others might well know. But he has no idea if what he's looking at here is proof that she has a Persona, or...

The 'or' is a potent or, isn't it.

He hands the book back over as she tries to explain. Or rather, doesn't. "I see... some of the figures in here are very interesting. I'm not certain I've seen anything like them," he says, glancing again at Ichika, who returns a somewhat confused look of her own. "It's not from... a cartoon, is it? Is it something you're more familiar with, Kawase-san?" He hasn't watched cartoons since he was quite small, himself: he'd outgrown that rather quickly.

But she just says that imagination should be a little strange. "I suppose that's true," he says, and perhaps as homicide detective, he'll be forgiven his apparent lack of imagination on these matters.

He likes cats. This isn't the half of it, actually.

Yoko continues, saying that he knows what cats like to eat, which isn't so bad, or weird, really. But she goes on: there's the matter of the cat-shaped cookie-cutters. "Th--those were for someone else," Katsuya blurts out in a hurry, looking like she'd said something way, way more embarrassing, like that she'd spotted him coming out of a very different sort of store. "I thought that-- for a woman, something cute might..." He trails off, largely because he's probably dug this hole a bit deeper, considering who he'd told Yoko those were for, and the fact that he's just admitted to buying something for a woman.

(In truth, he'd bought them because he thought the kitty-cat cookie cutters were cute, too...)

"Ah, I see. That's the case where I live, as well." Also, he's allergic, so it's a non-starter all around.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
There are many ways to contribute to art culture! What would artists draw if there were no models? Museums would be full of nothing but endless bowls of fruit...! "Is Sei-kun someone from school?" She isn't sure if Ichika is still in high school, or maybe college.

"...I like that." There's something a little secretive and pleased about the smile Yoko aims down at her sketchbook. "And there's nothing wrong with being strange, anyway." Even if it goes against cultural norms and the get-along ethos of Japanese society.

It feels a little bereft to have no pets around. Yoko knows ''why'' dorms can't allow them (imagine a building full of dogs barking and cats yowling and birds screeching and fish... doing whatever it is that fish do. Blorping?) but she does miss the family cats at her parents' house. "I've been trying to make friends with a cat that lives at Iwatodai Station. If you ever visit there, I'll try to introduce you." She almost got to pet it the other day!

Any day now, Yoko is sure of it. Senpai's method is foolproof. And Yoko isn't a more powerful fool than anybody else.

"I don't really have time to watch television much," she denies, shaking her head. Her hair's still messy...! "I go see things or attend Art Club after school, and then there's homework. ...But sometimes I let something play while I draw or work."

But she tilts her head at him, staring, when he gets flustered. "But they were for Yeo-san, right?" What's wrong with giving something cute to someone else??
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
"Oh!" Ichika starts. "He's a friend from where my parents live, not my school," she explains. "He goes to Gekkoukan High. His name's Yuusei Ogawa. He's in the Art Club there. He was my boyfriend for a while." A pause. "I go to Kasugayama."

Strange... Something good about that. Glamorous! Ichika doesn't really know anything about American presidents. She's sure they spend a lot of time watching baseball in New York with their guns.

Ichika... ''did'' see those sketches, but at the time she didn't think much of it. Katsuya's questions make her realize maybe she should think twice.

"I, uh..."

Is she familiar with it? Ichika is not actually that ''great'' at lying all the time. She looks at Yoko. Then she looks at Katsuya. "I don't think they're from a cartoon," she says.

But cats! "Ooh," Ichika says, hearing the intrigue of ''buying a gift for a woman''. It cheers her up a little. "I don't watch a ton of TV either," she supplies for Yoko. "Just some dramas."

But... "A gift for a woman," Ichika repeats then. "I'd like it if a guy got me something like that. You probably did good! I guess the police have time for romance, too?"

She smiles. But then--wait.

"Oh, you know Yeo-san?" She's surprised. She didn't think they were the kind of person to know police...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
She doesn't think they're from a cartoon, or anything like that. "I see..." And Yoko says that she doesn't have time to watch a lot of television. It's not possible that she imagined those out of nothing, is it? That it's some kind of coincidence? No, she has to have seen their Personas. ...But when? They weren't in a supernatural space (outside the environs of the Cardboard Dragon, that is) so that does beg the question of 'how this happened in the first place'.

He decides to change the subject, not certain what else he can ask: doesn't he understand what's happening, if not why? "I am in the same situation, I suppose," he says, of the TV. Though he does have his television on sometimes, when he's working in his apartment's excuse for a kitchen. It's nice, to have some sound on in the background.

"Ah, so that cat is still there?" Katsuya says, not evading the allegations of him being some sort of cat-lover.

"Yes, they were for Yeo-san."

Yoko, fortunately, doesn't latch onto what he's trying to say as emblematic of anything ''deeper''.

Ichika, unfortunately, does.

"Ah--" Katsuya gets out, looking as if he's just received a terrible shock. "No, no, that's not-- what I mean to say is... it isn't... like that." For one thing, he's a little too busy right now to be in a relationship with anyone (particularly still coming off his breakup from last year, which had gone badly if he's any judge himself). For another, isn't it... it wouldn't be proper, is the long and short of it, for a handful of reasons, among them being the fact that his workplace is still regards Myunghon as a potential criminal element. If word got out that they had-- ''this'' sort of relationship -- it'd make it impossible help them out again in any way.

And things being what they are, Katsuya might even have to resign. Even the appearance of impropriety can be the same as actual impropriety. He knows this lesson well.

"Yeo-san is an acquaintance of mine," he explains at length. "Since she is wounded, I wanted to... help her with her errands." Just your normal helpful local police officer, eh?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
He goes to Gekkoukan High. "Ogawa-senpai??" Yoko is easily redirected (momentarily) from Katsuya's embarrassment over Being Caught Doing Nice Things For Others (the shame!!). "He's really good! We haven't talked much but his work stands out." That means... if he's the 'Sei-kun' Ichika was talking about...

Yoko looks at Ichika. Really looks at her, particularly her face... and hands. "No way... you were the model for 'Grasp'?" Everybody liked that one...! "He did such a great job modeling the knuckles! It's really easy to forget them or to make them too knobby, but he made them look graceful and strong without unbalancing the overall composition."

So Yoko ''can'' be talkative...!

Of course Kawase-san wouldn't have seen them on television, Yoko thinks privately. Nobody else could have seen them. (Probably.) ...It's kind of strange though, isn't it, that Officer Suou was so intrigued. Maybe he's not someone who appreciates non-classical art? That or everything unusual is just anime to him.

"Yes. Arisato-senpai and I have been feeding it. I can't bring it to my dorm, but maybe Senpai could. I think he lives in one of the nicer ones?" She heard something like that once, or maybe it was just a rumor.

But maybe Ichika's gotten the wrong impression, and it's making Katsuya uncomfortable. "It didn't seem like that, when we were at the Cardboard Dragon. Officer Suou was formal like usual, but there wasn't anything romantic about it." Is she taking pity on him...?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
Ogawa!! Yoko knows him! Ichika smiles at Yoko. "Oh, that's great!" Then, Yoko gets it and--"Oh!" She flushes a little. "Yes," Ichika answers of her hands. "He's really good, isn't he? He told me it's because my hands were already graceful, but I think if he weren't so good they'd have come off more ordinary..." She likes her hands, but she doesn't think of them as terribly ''special''. "But it feels really nice that a piece I got to help with was so successful."

But the cat! "Oh, Arisato? ...That wouldn't be Minato Arisato, would it?" Small world!

Oh, for Yeo-san. But Ichika realizes a ''different'' issue. ...That comes later. First...

"Oh, it's not?" Ichika looks a little disappointed. She was already starting to ship the nice detective with his mystery woman. Besides; if it were Yeo-san...

Ichika opens her mouth and closes it; she can't quite think of a way to correct Katsuya on the matter of Myunghon, but at the same time, calling them a woman seems not quite right either...

Well, if Myunghon wanted him to know, he'd know, right? ...Or should she say something? It takes her a minute to settle.

Yoko chimes in. "My bad," she says. "I'm just kinda romance brained," she admits. "When you have someone you like, you see it everywhere. ...Uh, but anyway. No, I know Yeo-san, too. It's cool of you to help."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
He regards Yoko curiously, as if he didn't expect all ''that'' out of her just like that. Which... is pretty much what just happened. She's pretty quiet by nature, or at least, this is his read on her regarding, but it seems once the conversation pivots towards something she's interested in, she's capable of saying quite a lot. "Is that so," he remarks, entering the conversation he'd largely been content to remain outside. "It does make sense. Construction and assembly of a three-dimensional is not a skill easily acquired. It requires an understanding of how the final product must look and how best to reach that state," he says, because he knows a little bit about that himself. ...Just not with clay, or stone.

(He's never done anything completely out of pocket, like a wedding cake, but he's done due diligence in other areas. Macarons alone require a steady hand...)

She'd mentioned her sempai before, that he'd been the one to first correctly attract the cat with some takoyaki. It ''had'' worked, he must admit, but is it really healthy for a cat to be used to eating takoyaki...?

(they were good takoyaki)

But alas, a misconception has taken place. Yoko comes to his rescue! ...Though, there's something embarrassing about him needing it, as well, so it's sort of a zero-sum game. "Hirano-san, this isn't..." he tries to protest, but there's no heat in it at all. Besides, Ichika has apologized. Katsuya shakes his head. "No, no, it's... quite alright." It's not, but he's not going to ''say'' that to a young woman he barely knows. "It is... an understandable mistake." Considering the way he'd put it, anyway.

As with Tsubasa, there's something that still hasn't been explained to him about Myunghon, alas. "So you know her as well? ...Well, as a public servant, if I can be of use..." he says, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

It's because he hasn't been ''entirely'' honest, truth be told. He's getting skill cards from Myunghon as an exchange, for baking lessons from him.

"Are you a player of card games, then?" He makes it sound so stiff!
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"That's something that only a model for a piece gets to know," Yoko says, smiling another version of that secret smile. "What it's like to see the 'you' that lives inside someone else."

Oh, Ichika knows him too? "Yes. Senpai showed me how to coax out the cat. He calls it Enigma." Yoko and Katsuya have had a serious discussion about cat names. "I wonder if the cat's let Senpai pet it yet...?"

Ichika is just romance-brained, then. "Love and romance are enduring themes, and they make people create. If you love something you'll dedicate a lot of time to it. You can make really amazing things if you're passionate." That may be simplifying things a bit - there's a lot more to great works than just enthusiasm!

"Yes, that's it - it's work to be able to make and understand two-dimensional forms, and it's even harder to work in three. Talent only gets you so far." Yoko fidgets a little bit with the corners of her closed sketchbook, before giving in and opening it to leaf through. The pages with Castor and Helios are near the middle of the book, and the preceeding pages are crammed full. "Anybody can make art. With enough studying and practice, you can even surpass someone who relies solely on talent."

It's not what? She considers Katsuya, but he just says everything's all right. Yoko doesn't think he's being entirely truthful and her expression indicates that. But she knows that there are things people don't want to talk about, and maybe that's one of them. Maybe he's just saying it's okay to change the subject.

Yoko turns back to Ichika. "Have you seen 'Vampire Bakers'? The illustrations are really good!"

She's got your back, Officer Suou.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Ichika Kawase has posed.
<poem>
It is a difficult skill! But Yoko has the emotional context that makes it special for Ichika, and Ichika smiles at her. She gets it. "Right," Ichika answers. It's a feeling that's easy to want to experience again sometime... But Katsuya, Ichika wonders if that means he does some kind of art. She already kinda put her foot in it once though, so she doesn't ask.

Enigma the cat. "Oh, cool. He's pretty cool." She's appreciative of Minato. He's a good... friend.

Enduring themes! Ichika is glad to put it to the general instead of specific, since she'd be a little embarrassed in this company to talk about 'who' that is. ...Art's an easier topic, too. "Right. Tsubasa-kun is really good at art, too, and I can tell they get better by practicing."

But it's all right, he says, and while she suspects it might not be, she's going to take the graceful out offered her. "Thanks," she says. Instead, "I do. But..."

Vampire Bakers!!

"No, but I'm thinking of trying them," she says. "I know Yeo-san because... Well..."

"Personal stuff," she settles on. "Yeo-san's cool. But I might try the games. I'm definitely not smart enough for the books."
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Engima just isn't cute enough as a name, in Katsuya's estimation. (The cat had been very cute, cuter than he'd expected.)

"Well... that is true," Katsuya says, of love and romance. "Some of the more enduring myths and legends, to say nothing of stories, are about love. In fact, even the founding myth of this country is, at its core, a story about love, isn't it?" It's just also a sad story about love, and how bonds that once tied can be shattered forever.

So it's no surprise such tales have prompted art and music. And of course, when you love someone, it's normal to want to make things for them, too. Isn't it?

Ichika's a lot closer than she thinks. It's just probably not the art that she's likely to think of first-off. And if she's listening to the rumors, Katsuya is into... photography as hobby?? (He's not, but at this rate it might end up happening. Reality is at the mercy of public opinion, in this city.)

"Seki-kun is also an artist? I wouldn't have guessed. Do they sculpt as well?"

Talent only gets you so far.

Katsuya, himself, wouldn't describe himself as talented. Not... naturally. He has his gifts, like everyone does, but he's never coasted a day in his life. Everything he's gotten, he's gotten through effort, and a lot of it. "Yes," he says, as if agreeing what what Yoko's saying. "That is correct, I believe. ...You are quite perceptive, Hirano-san." Or maybe she's just buttered him up in the right way to appeal to his ego, which is also a definite possibility.

He's concealing something here. But he'd just said he's not dating Myunghon, so it's probably less fraught than a relationship would be. Some under-the-table agreement, maybe (yes, actually)? Or some secret plot between the two of them (no, it's definitely not that)?

Not card games. Not the books, either... Yeo-san's advice, maybe? If she's Tsubasa's friend, and Tsubasa he knows is close to Myunghon, then that, he decides, might be the key to this particular puzzle. Someone who is a mentor to one might be the mentor to another. It's as easy as that, even if Myunghon is an unorthodox mentor, indeed. "Ah. So that's how it is... I am not one for games like that, myself," he answers, shaking his head. The books are a little more his speed. Well, some of them, anyway.

And the skill cards might just prove the difference between life or death.
</poem>

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

2025-10-01: Suspicious Characters

2025-10-02T14:39:08Z

Rancakes: Created page with "*'''Log: 2025-10-01 Suspicious Characters''' *'''Cast:''' Yoko Hirano, Kurou Ryouhara, Katsuya Suou *'''Where:''' Rengedai Ward, Sumaru *'''OOC Date:''' October 01, 2025 *'''IC Date:''' July 19, 2012 *'''Summary''': ''Kurou and Katsuya both suspect one another of nefarious designs. Yoko just wants to find the art supply store.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed. <poem> Yoko doesn't mind traveling for errands. She wasn't able to really go any..."

*'''Log: 2025-10-01 Suspicious Characters'''
*'''Cast:''' [[Yoko Hirano]], [[Kurou Ryouhara]], [[Katsuya Suou]]
*'''Where:''' Rengedai Ward, Sumaru
*'''OOC Date:''' October 01, 2025
*'''IC Date:''' July 19, 2012
*'''Summary''': ''Kurou and Katsuya both suspect one another of nefarious designs. Yoko just wants to find the art supply store.''

----

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Yoko doesn't mind traveling for errands. She wasn't able to really go anywhere for months after she got ill - not on her own, anyway, not for long - and hasn't quite forgotten the feeling of staring out a window or walking the hospital corridors. Whenever the everyday sameness of going to school and coming back to her dorm becomes a little monotonous, Yoko likes to pick a useful destination on the internet or from word of mouth and go.

Plus, once she's there she'll discover new places that weren't on the map. She might see things that she would have missed if she went to shops she already knew about.

There are too many things to ever see in a single lifetime but Yoko doesn't mind trying.

Also this art supply shop is supposed to have more colors of polymer clay than any other store in the region!

Messenger bag crossed over her shoulder and Gekkoukan uniform relatively tidy (she got that red spot out of her skirt finally!), Yoko looks down at her list of directions, then back up at the shop windows. "..."

...This time she might be lost. There's no Satomi Tadashi on her printout...
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
Yoko Hirano... An important person of interest to the shirogarasu, though Kurou isn't sure on the details. Neither might the shirogarasu, given Kurou's task to keep an eye on her. And, moreover, to find out her 'deal'...

So far, her deal appears to be... misplacing herself among the shop windows.

Kurou is not unskilled in espionage, and has been careful to remain subtle about how he follows Yoko. Until now, he's left large amount of space between the two of them and maintained a plausible feint in his own interests along the way -- so long as he does not actually get distracted by the urge to find the cat he keeps getting the sense is nearby.

Except, it's difficult to follow someone who isn't moving. And dangerous, should someone else move in for the opportunity to secure such a high priority target.

Kurou may first be seen in the reflection of those shop windows, forgetting feet are supposed to make sounds in every day life. He looks down at Yoko's map, then to the shops, then back again.

"... Excuse me. Are you lost?"

Kurou's wearing his Kasugayama uniform, with his own bag carried on his shoulder, though not across the chest like Yoko. While the way he wears the uniform is cleanly pressed and properly buttoned, he still has that dyed hair and painted nails. Well, that part's typical of a Kasu student, at least.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Just like that, Katsuya had mysteriously been granted a day of leave! Mysterious and unprecedented, particularly in a city like Sumaru!

No, he knows exactly why this happened. He'd, once again, gotten too close to something that he perhaps shouldn't have: they'd responded in the only way they could. Perhaps more trouble will be in the offing soon enough. But even he can only pace around his dorm room so much. He's come out to Rengedai and its more familiar spaces to get some fresh air--

Or at least, make good on another promise and pick up some things for an 'acquaintaince'. Please don't notice that there's a homicide detective shopping at that kitchen supply store! Or rather, if you do perceive it, please don't think anything of it. This is normal behavior. Yes, including the little kitty-cat-shaped cookie cutters. Would you believe they're ''not'' for him?

It's from this space that he steps out into the plaza again proper and soon spots a familiar figure making her way about the shops as if lost--
And a not-so-familiar one.

That's Hirano. And that other one, he doesn't know. Wait, isn't that boy...

How well-attuned are Kurou's senses? Can he hear that someone is approaching his location? Is he aware, as he silently advances on Yoko and asks her if she's lost, that he's attracted attention of his own?

"Excuse me. Why are you following her?"

Katsuya is well aware of the fact that some men -- and boys -- are dogs, and he's made a split-second assessment of what it is that he thinks Kurou is up to... and intervened accordingly. His arms are folded across his chest. He looks... unimpressed.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
The promise of a nearby cat is very distracting. Yoko falls victim to such fancies at least three times a week! (The Iwatodai Station cat nearly let her pet it on Tuesday. The emotional high lasted a full twenty seven hours.)

So far, she hasn't noticed Kurou at all. He's very skilled!

If there's a giant bone-thing chewing the scenery nearby, she doesn't pay it much mind. After all, sometimes things like that just 'are', and Yoko is on a mission. She'll worry if it gets closer or seems to notice her.

Kurou, too, is silent. His reflection in the window is the only reason he doesn't startle her! Yoko studies him for a moment. He's familiar. She's seen him before. ...At the combini, that's right. With the blonde onee-san and the skeleton chewing on... the...

...Hmm.

But is she lost? "M--" she begins to answer. But just like that, there's a more-familiar voice behind them! Yoko cranes her head to stare over her shoulder, green eyes guileless. "Oh. Officer Suou?"

She looks from him, to Kurou. From Kurou, to him. And then back to the skeleton because it ''did'' get closer.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
Gashadokuro gnaws on many things. A large Persona, simply part of the scenario, chewing on any storefront that sticks out. But the rattling of bones -- audible or visible in anyone's resonance -- comes to a silent halt.

Kurou is skilled at what he's been trained to do... but there's always someone more skilled in their ''own'' field. This, Kurou is well aware of, and this, Kurou, too, is attuned to. He's just not attuned to it fast enough -- by the time the hair on the back of his neck is on end, Katsuya has already begun to speak.

He turns to look to Katsuya, but his face doesn't manage anything beyond the blank stare it normally has. Suou. ''Officer'' Suou. Shiryuu had warned Kurou of him, and of the police getting more involved. Is this man already aware of Yoko's value, and intends to stake his claim? There are some blunders in a mission that can be made up for later, and there are some that cannot. That unimpressed look... this is a confident opponent, too.

But is he funny faced...? Hm.

Kurou shifts position, trying to keep squarely between Yoko and Katsuya to act as a ''shield''. His voice lowers, attention on Katsuya, but words on Yoko.

"... His attention is focused on me. You can hurry to your destination."

No, Kurou, ''you're'' the one under suspicion of something untoward here...!

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Katsuya is dressed down, for him at least: this means dark slacks, a buttoned-down white dress shirt, and no tie. The sunglasses, though, are omnipresent.
It's a little too warm for a jacket if he's not required to wear one (like, when he's on duty, say). In one arm he bears the shopping bag in one arm emblazoned with the logo of a nearby cooking supply store. Little about him in the moment suggests that he's an officer.

And yet, Yoko knows him ''as'' an officer, doesn't she? His gaze meets hers briefly.

There is... a cat here, somewhere. This is the thought that invades his psyche even as he stares down at Kurou with all the force of a suspicious authority figure. Also, hello there, Yoko, everything will be fine.

Allegedly, that is.

But Kurou gets between him and Yoko, and says, although in a whisper, loudly enough still that Katsuya can hear it--

Katsuya just looks confused.

Then: "Hirano-san... is he an acquaintance of yours?" He's uncertain: he knows what he saw. Yet, this response has also thrown him for a loop. Why is it that he's suddenly the villain here...?
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Skeleton... bone thing. Isn't there a monster like that? Yoko continues to stare at it, blinking slowly when it goes still. It was there with the boy at the Triple Seven, wasn't it. Ah, but that doesn't mean anything... Just because it's a really ''big'' skeleton and very distinctive (being made of smaller skeletons) doesn't mean it's special. It could be a coincidence. Yoko sees yokai all the time, after all.

Kurou shifts between her and Katsuya, murmuring something. She can go? He stares at Katsuya. She stares at them both. ...Even though she and Kurou don't ''look'' alike, they 'look at' quite the same...!

"It's okay," Yoko says, because neither of them know what's going on and that isn't their fault, probably. "Officer Suou is my friend. And I met him," here she bobs her head at Kurou, "before, at a combini. The Triple Seven." Now they can all relax and be friends together, maybe.

"..." She's quiet for a moment, fidgeting with the strap of her bag and not quite meeting anybody's eye. "...Also I haven't found where I'm going yet. So I can't hurry." Her eyes wander to the bag Katsuya's holding. "...vampire baker," she mumbles, holding a hand to her mouth. what??
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
The giant skeleton made of skeletons is not trying to eat Yoko, and isn't that all that really matters when it comes to the subject of skeletons?

Kurou, despite his defensive posture, mirrors that look with Yoko. It is a stare that is more blank than wary. But it is indeed just their manner, not their looks, that holds resemblance. That's just how Kurou's face is, no matter how much attention he's keeping on Katsuya. Shiryuu was right to be concerned with the police gaining power... This feeling...

Yoko assures them it's okay, and Kurou only eases one muscle at a time, slowly straightening back to a posture resembling normalcy -- normal for Kurou, who is rigid by default. "Your friend," Kurou repeats. This is more dire than the shirogarasu thought...

Kurou does not frown, and the breath he exhales cannot quite said to be a sigh, either.

He looks back to Katsuya and lowers into a bow. "My apologies. I was unaware you were her friend." This does not mean Kurou can drop his guard. Suou already knew Kurou was following her... he might still want to keep her isolated from others...

(Kurou, that's not what the situation is!!)

Oh. Yoko can't hurry, without knowing her destination. "Oh." Kurou's brow barely knits together, like it's struggling to, with that thought. So she is lost. But before he can offer help on that, she says something else. Vampire... baker...

Kurou looks at Kastuya's bag, then up at Katsuya. He reaches up and undoes one of the piercings in his ear, glancing back to Yoko. "... Do you need silver?"

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Fortunately, Yoko cuts through the noise. Officer Suou is her friend, and not out to arrest Yoko for the crime of... ...who knows what, it's not as if he's on duty or that she's playing delinquent from classes (it's a perfectly normal time for her to be out here shopping for supplies. or looking for the place where you shop for supplies). All is well!

Wait, is that--

It is. It's a Persona. His own talent with this power is limited, far less than some of his compatriots (aka, Baofu). He has ''impressions'' of a hulking form, of a great hunger, but... they're all secondary to the psychic force that announces that this young man is, too, a Persona-user.

(Resonance is often a two-way street, of course: what he senses from Kurou, Kurou senses from him-- though Helios is hardly hungry or hulking.)
(...Then again, aren't all cats always hungry? Perhaps that sentiment should be revised! Certainly not hulking, though.)

"We've met before," he explains, wondering about the statement of 'friend' if they've only met the two times, and one of them was about a cat? "Hirano-san is, er..." He's paused, regarding Kurou. "And your name is?" He's at a bit of a disadvantage here: he doesn't know ''his'' name.

But then, Yoko stares at his bag and Katsuya gazes down at her, reminded suddenly of the display that had been in the Cardboard Dragon the last time he was there. "Well-- actually, I was picking up something for Yeo-san," he starts, and even though this is the truth, he doesn't seem to realize how ''personal'' that probably sounds to another person's ear. A police officer? Picking up supplies for a card shop owner on his day off? ???

Does he need silver, though, and Katsuya is forced to realize that Yoko is not the only person from Cloud Cuckoo Land here. "I... don't think that's necessary," he says, playing the diplomat. "She is referring to, er... a card game."

About vampire bakers. Because what else is there left to do when you're immortal, but master baking? It all makes sense now.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Let it never be said that Yoko isn't thankful for giant skeletons not trying to eat her. It is very important.

If the boy seems a little wary of Officer Suou, that's probably understandable. Even Yoko has heard rumors about the kind of kids that are sent to Kasugayama High, but so far he hasn't been anything but polite. Maybe it's all the dress code violations. He's too flashy and fashionable for a place like Seven Sisters or Gekkoukan. And Officer Suou is a policeman, which means an authority figure. Possibly even more powerful than a student council member (Yoko's experiences with Mitsuru Kirijo et al are ''not'' universal, and she would do well to remember that).

He takes his earring off, and Yoko almost doesn't get it. "...Oh. No, he's not a vampire. The sun is out, so he'd be on fire," Yoko logics, pointing upwards. "If vampires were real," she amends. Maybe the earring's a joke, like Yanagi-san's gun? It's a good one!

But Katsuya isn't here for himself. "Oh. Are they feeling better yet?" As far as Yoko knows, Katsuya and Myunghon are friends, too. Maybe this is normal. He gives her the impression of someone who can't help wanting to help... "--Yes, it's a card game. I don't really understand the rules, but the art was cute. It leans hard into contemporary kawaii culture but the colored pencils used in many of the illustrations lend it a cozy feeling that fits in nicely with the baking theme!" she's doing it again
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
Cats are always hungry, at least a little. They are born hunters. Police are a kind of hunter, too, to someone like Kurou. But despite, as Katsuya notes, his Cloud Cuckoo Land residence, Kurou ''is'' trying to be civil ''and'' compliant with social norms.

He's just... not very good at it. Yoko is also more observant on this matter than even Kurou might admit to, if he knew what she were thinking. Light many Kasu students, authority figures don't feel ''safe'' to Kurou, albeit for different reasons.

"Kurou Ryouhara," Kurou offers without obstinance. "Nice to meet you, Officer-san." That's very likely a lie, but only if you consider the formal script of polite greetings to be one.

It is sunny. That's true. But isn't there such a thing as daywalkers...? He can't remember where he's heard that. Kurou nods instead, puncturing his earring back into place and turns his thoughts to the card game. Kurou's head turns to one side, like this concept will make more sense at a new angle. It does not. "I see," he finally says, much in the way that someone who does not, in fact, see might. But thankfully, Yoko provides further elaboration, and Kurou's attention falls upon her with studious intensity.

"Horror elements depicted in kawaii styling, in a medium enforcing softer colors... Oh. I ''see''."

Somehow, the tone is completely different when he says it again this time. He really does seem to understand now...?!

Kurou looks to Katsuya, then Yoko, and back again. "A cosplayer?" That might be something they have in common as friends, despite the age gap...?

... All right, he still has misunderstood some things.

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
If Yoko weren't here, he'd ask the boy directly about having a Persona. It's not so common as that: most days, he can walk down the street and never once catch the pulse of resonance.
It's just that ''also'' some days, he's in a park and a dozen other people have one. Life comes at you fast, sometimes!

He doesn't think anything of it, as a matter of fact: the boy's a Kasugayama student, which says about everything anyone would need to say about his relationship to police and other authority figures. People don't end up at Kasugayama for no reason, and more than a few of their number have had run-ins with the police (he should know, given what Tsubasa's relationship with the local authorities is like!).

Kurou Ryouhara. That's the name.

"It is good to meet you as well," he says, leaning polite.

...Wait, did he think that... ''he'' was a vampire? "Vampires don't really exist," says Katsuya, which is something he'll regret when he runs into some blood-sucking demon or another in a month or two (not to mention, he should take a closer look at Merry's Persona sometime!). "There's no such thing. I'm certainly not a," he starts, then turns his head to stare at Yoko who explains he's not a vampire because he'd be on fire! Because of the sun.

...Somehow he thinks he shouldn't confuse the matter and bring up his light sensitivity (what, did you think the sunglasses were just to look cool?).

"Yes, though their arm is still healing," he says to Yoko, speaking of Myunghon.

Yoko talks about the card game. The art on the cards, actually. The-- feeling around the art on the cards? Horror elements... with a cute affect? It's not that he doesn't understand aesthetics: a proper dessert is cute but also looks delicious. A thing can evoke multiple senses at once. A suit can be functional, but the cut flatters the form, and the one color can shine when set against another.

But let's not forget, they're talking about a card game. It's still a different ballpark as far as he's concerned. All he knows is that they're vampires. They bake. And that he's cracked the reason for ''why'' they bake.

"...A... cosplayer?" he echoes. He looks at Kurou. Katsuya is the least hip person to many cultural goings-on, but let's be frank here: he knows what cosplay is, he's not lived under a rock all his life. Hence the vehement shake of his head! "Of course not. I'm merely-- as I said, picking up this and that." It's nothing important. Nothing to see here. Please don't ask about the cute-cute kitty cookie-cutters.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Kurou Ryouhara. He's very polite, despite his failure to adhere to dress codes. It would be fun to have colorful hair or nail polish, wouldn't it? Yoko understands the desire to see color where it wouldn't ordinarily be.

And then he ''gets it''.

"Yes! It's really smart of the maker to go in that direction. Creepy cute is such a versatile genre because you can adjust the mixture in so many different ways!" she enthuses, rocking from side to side with excitement. "From stuff that barely uses any of the opposing element to an even mixture, there are so many things you can do!"

She really liked the picture of the witch's cat kneading a lump of dough. She still has no idea what it does in-game.

How many yards of ribbon would it take to make Gashadokuro kawaii...?

"That's a relief," Yoko nods. Myunghon had been welcoming and as kind as possible under the circumstances... and they'd seemed pleased when Yoko prattled on about the different pictures and why she'd wanted to see the shop.

But Officer Suou is just picking up this and that. "Ah. That's right, I came here to find a shop too. Karakura Art Supply." Yoko remembers the list of directions in her hand, offering it to them.

She wonders if they sell ribbon.
</poem>

<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
Kurou, at least, would prove to have no criminal record like some Kasu students do, but he also has no ''academic'' record.

Vampires aren't real, Katsuya informs them. There's a lot that you're not supposed to simply ask about or point out in public, and Kurou's fuzzy on almost all of it. But the subject of the supernatural is an easier one to grasp: ''do not''. What he says instead is, "... Sometimes it's easier to believe in them than it isn't."

In a world of supernatural things that weren't supposed to be real, can it be said with confidence what does not exist anymore?

"Creepy cute..." Kurou echoes of this new concept. He nods along. That's an interesting combination of ideas, but one Yoko readily points out the finer points of. There's a versatility in the two extremes. "But it must be difficult walking the line between the two properly... Or... is the variance in perceptions also an advantage...?"

How many yards of ribbon ''would'' it take to make Gashadokuro kawaii? Maybe if some of the skeletons fell from around the eye sockets and made them bigger, it would be a start.

Kurou goes quiet as they discuss a mutual friend. Someone who had been hurt. Kurou doesn't know anything about that. But he also isn't dumping the discussion from memory.

Oh. Katsuya isn't a kawaii vampire baker cosplayer... "A regular baker," he corrects. Kurou's brow tries to furrow again as he chews on these thoughts. This probably means Yoko probably isn't a cosplayer either, though. She's going to Karakura Art Supply. This must be part of what her deal is. Kurou looks over the directions, then back to Yoko.

"I know where this is. I purchased wax pastels there."

Kurou do you mean CRAYONS?

"It is a couple blocks over. On this side of the street." He points. "I will accompany you, if you wish."

Either way, he's learned what he needs to... and he won't press his luck with provoking Suou into tightening his grasp around Yoko further. (Not what any of this is, Kurou!)

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Yoko goes on about how the opposing elements of the cards really make the concept pop, and Katsuya thinks he gets it.
This, too, is gap moe...?

It's easier to believe in vampires than ''not'' to believe in them, though? Well, Kurou ''is'' young, and people like to believe in a lot of strange things, like ghosts. Or ninja. He just shakes his head, but doesn't press the matter further.

"Not to worry, I'm sure that all shall be well with her soon!" he says, of Myunghon. "I am certain she would not mind seeing you again." They ''had'' seemed to hit it off, hadn't they?

A regular baker, Kurou also tells him. "Well-- these are for someone else," Katsuya says, which is not actually a ''denial'', per se.

And, finally, the conversation circles back to the real issue here: Yoko ''was'' lost and was looking for the art store. "Oh, Karakura? I think it was," he says, and he's started to point with his free arm at...
At the same direction that Kurou mentions. Hmm.

"Wax pastels?" Katsuya has to think about that for a moment. "Ah, crayons." That's... not how he's used to thinking about them, but it's not precisely wrong.

He thinks for a moment about Kurou, and how Yoko says he's a friend of hers. He thinks about how Kurou was following her.

"I shall escort you, too," he tells her. "It's on my way." It's really not, he's just being overly suspicious of Kurou.
</poem>

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

2025-09-16: Ships In the Night

2025-09-22T20:15:18Z

Rancakes:

* '''Log: 2025-09-16 Ships In the Night'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Yanagi Nagisa]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
* '''Where:''' Iwatodai Strip Mall, Wilduck Burger
* '''OOC Date:''' September 21, 2025
* '''IC Date:''' July 14, 2012
* '''Summary''': ''While waiting for the Iwatodai Station cat, Yoko meets a fairy. Yanagi and Yoko try to find common ground but realize they're having two different conversations.''

----
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
It's said that it takes a lot of courage to order the special at Wilduck Burger--or maybe that eating it gains you courage, because its ingredients are a mystery. That's an intimidating thing for some people.

For Yanagi Nagisa, it is a fascinating call to culinary adventure. She's been to Iwatodai-Port Island a few times already and has meant to try it, and today is the day.

It isn't bad, either. It has an extra-chewy texture that she enjoys, but certainly puts to mind organ meat. As she chews another bite, her gray-eyed gaze turns towards the window--she'd picked a seat right next to it--to observe those passing to and fro. There's a stripey orange cat that hangs out not too far away, and that of course draws her attention as she eats.

For her part, Yanagi's dressed in a loose, flowing silk gown in the colors of the ocean, tied off in ribbons at the shoulders, bunched up at the waist, and threaded with actual silver that shimmers along with it. Today's jewelry are thin silver bangles on her wrists and ankles to match both the threads and her silver sandals, an undulating toe ring set with a single sapphire on her left second-biggest toe, and solid platinum hair clips on either side of her long, wavy ash-white hair, inlaid with lapis lazuli that makes the platinum take the shape of crescent (left) and gibbous (right) moons.

It is absolutely not the kind of outfit one would eat fast food in. She's gotten a few stares already, and she does not care.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
There's a cat here somewhere.

A striped orange cat lives here at Iwatodai Station, subsisting off of the kindness of travelers and whatever it scrounges from places like Wilduck and Hagakure. Yoko has been trying to befriend it for a couple of weeks now, and while her success rate isn't 100%, she's gotten very good at performing Arisato-senpai's summoning ritual.

Some people might say that the cat is training her to bring it food, but Yoko would counter that she's still getting something out of the exchange.

Outside the window, a student in a Gekkoukan uniform appears carrying two paper boats from Octopia...

One boat is carefully placed underneath the bench with an air of intense seriousness! Crouching in front of it, Yoko looks around for a moment, before standing up to sit on the bench with her own serving of takoyaki. The success rate has been increasing lately, she's found~~ o/'

So she sits and waits, eating takoyaki and occasionally sipping from a bottle of water. Her summer uniform has a faded reddish smudge near the hem of her skirt and she kind of looks like she could stand to brush her hair. The heavy messenger bag she's got has wrinkled her blouse, and she's not wearing jewelry or makeup (it's not allowed at school!) but Yoko is clean and her uniform isn't tattered or anything.

The takoyaki underneath the bench sends out its mysterious and tantalizing aroma...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
Clearly both of them are getting something out of it: the cat gets food, and Yoko gets the pleasure of being in the presence of a cat. Pernelle behaves much the same way, so Yanagi understands!

Trading burger for fries in his peacockly honor, Yanagi continues to watch the spot where the cat is, and so sees a Gekkoukan student approach with Octopia Takoyaki. That's another strange food item Yanagi wants to try--apparently they don't use octopus; maybe they use an octopus substitute?--and so that draws her attention. She sips on her soda (all of the available sodas mixed in one cup) as she watches the disheveled but otherwise clean teen girl set one serving on her lap and one underneath the bench.

A whiskered nose pokes forward, sniffing at the wafting aroma...

If Yoko happens to look Yanagi's way--she's plainly visible through the window storefront--she smiles and waves to her. (Her make-up is on point, with blue-green eyeshadow, black mascara, and a pearlescent white lipstick that amazingly doesn't smear no matter how much Mystery Burger she eats, to match today's outfit.) However, she doesn't leave the Wilduck just yet. Let that girl do what she wants to do first...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
(It's better than octopus. No, Yoko cannot explain why.)

Patiently, she watches for the cat. The food is still too hot, maybe, but she'd done her best to wander around a little bit after Officer Suou had reminded her that freshly fried food is a bit dangerous. A human can blow on things to cool them down, but animals can't. It would be really terrible if the cat burned its mouth and couldn't eat...

She spears one of her own bites and eats it. ...Not dangerously hot, Yoko decides, and feels pleased.

She's chewing when her gaze wanders over to the windows of the shopping arcade. ....a fairy....

oh, the fairy is waving at her

Yoko glances around to see if anybody outside in the walkway is looking at her.

the fairy has a soda cup. the fairy is eating lunch. at wilduck burger.

Yoko raises the hand not holding her snack to about shoulder height and waves back. And remembers to smile! "...?"
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
Can anyone? Nay, that truth lies solely within one's heart.

The disheveled girl spots Yanagi and waves back! And even smiles too! How sweet! On a whim, Yanagi makes a 'come hither' gesture--in the Japanese style, of course, which involves gesturing towards oneself with one hand, fingers down.

The fairy is beckoning you into the wilds of Wilduck, Yoko...! Dare you answer the call? Especially since the under-bench takoyaki has not yet been nibbled...? But maybe if the cat has space, it'll feel more comfortable about eating...

And where better to watch that than by the side of an ocean fae? (One might say she's... sea-lie.)
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Yoko knows that if she waits long enough, the orange cat will almost certainly come to eat. But she can come back tomorrow and try again, if she doesn't get to see it today.

The fairy beckons to her. Yoko hesitates, for a lot of reasons. She looks down at the paper boat in her lap, and down the hallway again, and back at the fairy. "..." Coming to a decision, she leans over to carefully slide the rest of her snack underneath the bench next to the cat's portion and stands up.

Isn't there something about fairies abducting people? Is this how they do it? If she opens the door, will it still be Wilduck Burger inside...?!

Yoko opens it anyway, and is equal parts unsurprised and relieved when the interior remains the same. (Whew...)

Both hands hold on to the grey nylon strap angled across her chest. "Um. Hi," she tells the fairy, though without the window glass and warm lighting in the way Yoko feels much more assured that this is not ''actually'' a fairy (probably). "Did you..." Want something, she wants to ask, but doesn't really know ''how''. A little frustration colors her expression. "...I'm Yoko. Nice to meet you...?"
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
Oh! So the takoyaki was meant to be a treat eaten with the kitty! So Yanagi concludes when she sees that girl slip the remainder of her snack under the bench. (There is a kitty nearby; kitties love food; kitties hang out underneath benches; therefore this must be a treat for a kitty. Impeccable logic!)

It is true that the fae are known to abduct people. And yet Yoko let herself be summoned all the same. Is she brave, or...?

Yanagi is midway through a French fry when Yoko approaches. She doesn't answer the half-asked question, because it is only half-asked. However, she soon swallows her mouthful and smiles at Yoko anew.

"I'm Yanagi! It's nice to meet you too, Yoko," she replies. "Come sit with me, if you please!"

She gestures to the other side of her small table. From this angle, Yoko will be able to see the walking stick hanging off the side of the table, within Yanagi's reach.

"Were you trying to feed that cat?" she wonders, whether Yoko sits or not. If Yoko was just putting takoyaki under the bench for the sake of doing so, Yanagi has to rethink all of her assumptions, so it's important to confirm!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Brave, or...

Her frustration starts to bleed away once Yanagi introduces herself. And asks her to sit down! It's strange, but not in a bad way. It's just that... "Are you sure...?" Yoko asks, but sits down anyway. She notes the walking stick. It's sleek. Like art deco. Maybe a gold accent would be nice, too. She doesn't know why there's a thing that looks like a trigger. Maybe it's ''aesthetic''. Yoko is not up on mobility aid culture.

She looks out the window towards the bench when Yanagi asks about the cat. She doesn't expect it to have come out immediately just because she's gone, but she also doesn't want anything else eating the takoyaki (or someone coming by to clean it up too early). But nothing's there yet...

"Mm-hmm. You've seen it here too?" So had Senpai and Officer Suou. "Are you also feeding it?" Because Yoko doesn't know why someone wouldn't.

She rests her hands on the table surface, though she'd rather put one hand in her bag. "Why does your cane have a trigger? Is it an umbrella too?" That would be really cool, Yoko thinks.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
Maybe one of Yanagi's future walking sticks will have a gold accent. It would be beautiful, wouldn't it? And if life is short, it may as well be beautiful. Even ugliness and wretchedness have their charm by way of providing contrast, to make beauty that much more sublime--but we're getting ahead of ourselves a little.

"I have," Yanagi confirms, and then, "I'm not." She doesn't explain why, though she does have a good reason if Yoko asks. "I'm glad you are! To be wild is to be free, but to be free is to struggle. There's something wonderful about kindness unprovoked. It makes me think that might just be human nature."

And yet, given what else Yanagi has seen... But she doesn't go into that.

An umbrella-walking stick ''would'' be cool. What might be cooler, or perhaps more frightening, is the truth: "It isn't. It's a gun too," Yanagi tells her matter-of-fact with a smile that one might be forgiven as assuming is 'teasing,' even though she's being 100% serious.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Most people aren't feeding the cat, Yoko has guessed. It would be a lot easier to catch if they were, either because it wouldn't fear humans or it would be too round to escape easily. But is kindness really human nature? "...I think some people are kind. Maybe even most people."

They wouldn't be if they knew. They wouldn't be then. Everybody says so.

It's also a gun. Yoko blinks, and barely startles a bit. Wide acid-green eyes staring at Yanagi, a hand leaving the table to slide down the strap of her bag and underneath the flap, where it's resting safe in her lap.

The smooth curve of Yoko's latest work meets her fingers and she relaxes minutely. It was a good joke! It fooled her for a moment!

"So why do you have a cane that's also a gun?" she asks, because now she is In On The Joke.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
"Probably most people have a form of kindness," Yanagi agrees. "But what is kindness, I wonder? Is it really good to be kind, or is it merely a form of self-satisfaction? If you see someone struggling to cross the street, is it still kind to help them even if it's unasked for or unwanted, or does it then become a cruelty? Hmmm..." Her attention wanders for a moment; then she smiles back at her new companion. "What do you think, Yoko?"

Yoko startles just the littlest bit--but Yanagi is watching her, and Yanagi notices. This doesn't bother her. It would be startling to most people to hear that someone else has a concealed gun on them! Yanagi's intent isn't to alarm her, so it's good to see her relax.

Besides which, Yoko takes it in such stride! Yanagi admires her mental fortitude to accept something so outrageous so easily. (Oh, there was a joke?) "To fight," she replies. "I'm not very good at that, so it's important to be able to defend myself--" oh that sounds awfully normal "--against Shadows and Demons and whatnot." Ah, there it is.

"What's in your bag?" Yanagi then wonders. She's not asking for the sake of politeness; she's tilted her head and craning it to get a better look at that flap Yoko's slipped her hand under in open interest.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"I..." Is that what kindness is to some people? "..."

Had she ever thought to herself that she didn't want help? That she didn't want to be 'protected'? That she didn't want to be smothered in care, treated like she could break at any moment?

Yes, once. But that was more than two years ago.

"I think," she begins slowly, testing the words, "That even if people mean well sometimes they do things that are wrong or annoying... even if they mean well," she repeats herself. It chafes and chafes and chafes.

Yes. Yanagi would understand, because she isn't 'normal' or 'well' either. She's so thin and she has a cane and she makes jokes that startle people. Maybe she's angry.

'Against Shadows and Demons,' Yanagi says, and Yoko is suddenly even surer that Yanagi isn't well, but it doesn't make her nervous. "Oh, you see them too?" she blurts out, and then clamps her mouth shut. Which doesn't make much sense, because ''Yanagi'' was the one who said it first, but Yoko got very used to keeping quiet about that! "I, uh-"

"It's. I'm an artist!" she continues, because the narrative has gotten away from Yoko somehow and she needs to fix it. "I do sculpture mostly. I finished this the other day and..." The thing she draws out of her bag and places on the table is... some kind of Jomon rabbit?? But instead of textured red-brown clay it's cast in translucent red resin, like a strange alien ruby. Just looking at it and touching it makes her feel more balanced.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
Yanagi watches Yoko as she carefully thinks over the answer, then gives it as if tasting each word as they leave her mouth, and nods once. "I agree," she says softly. She isn't angry about it--not anymore--but she also doesn't put up with it either... at least, when she doesn't feel like putting up with it. It's hard to always know how she feels about it, even for someone like her.

"It sounds like we have something in common, Yoko," she adds, because Yanagi is also astute.

Likewise, the instant Yoko says ''that'', it's already too late. Too late for shutting her mouth, too late to try to come up with excuses, too late for a diversion. Yanagi looks at her, and there is interest in her dark gray eyes. "Oh, are you one of ''those''?" she wonders. "My Navigational senses are ''very'' good, but lately I've been running into people who don't project Resonance even when they should. It's very fascinating!" She leans forward with an excited smile. "If you wouldn't mind telling me more about it, I'd love to hear it!"

But instead or in addition, Yoko declares herself an artist. She looks down at the red resin rabbit, and she ''oooohs'' in appreciation. "What a pretty sculpture! May I?" She holds out her hands. If Yoko gives her permission, she'll pick it up and turn it over to look at it more closely and with appreciation; if not, she'll appreciate it from afar. "What a lovely resin! That shade of red is ''exquisite''. There's something a little unearthly about it."

She looks back at Yoko. "So when did you awaken to your Persona?" she wonders, bluntly. This will surely not cause any confusion.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Too late, too late! For a very important date, continues the line she's read several times by now. ...Well, it was ''close'' to that, anyway. Yanagi's eyes gleam with interest and Yoko is suddenly much less sure that she hasn't been making up this fae woman in her head all along. Navigational? Like the redhead from that anime...?

There's nothing duplicitous about Yoko's perplexed expression. "No, it's resin," she tries to explain, handing over the sculpture. "Not resonance." Maybe resinous...? The sculpture is smooth and heavy. It looks like it could have been polished from a single crimson gem, except where would Yoko get something so flawless to begin with? And it's not cold enough to be mineral.

"Thank you. I had to do a few different pours before I got one that was good, but I learned a lot about using a vacuum pot and mixing properly." Bubbles. Bubbles may yet be the death of her...

She wishes this conversation were as easy as dealing with resin bubbles! It's funny because those aren't easy at all!

Resonance, she realizes. Not resinous. But... isn't that like when glass is struck, or metal? Things hum together? Her eyebrows furrow underneath her messy bangs. "My what?"
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
"No, I mean... hmm... the psychic aura that your Persona gives off," Yanagi attempts to explain. "Though if you don't give one off, you may not have realized that they exist. I'm not really sure what the experience is like for those who have it! Or don't have it, I suppose." She tilts her head in thought for a moment.

Fortunately, Yoko does hand over the sculpture, and Yanagi is occupied with observing it for a moment. She hums thoughtfully as she turns it over. "I do something like sculptures, but with gems and metal. Jewelry, in other words," she replies. "But something like this would be fascinating to try..." Even the resin bubbles won't deter her, because they too are a part of experiencing life's many splendors and horrors!

She hands the sculpture back with a smile. "Your Persona. Your other self," she continues, and never mind that they are in public with people all around them. Yanagi continues to get odd looks, though most simply ignore her. That's the polite, ''safe'' thing to do. "I awoke to mine when I was confronted by a Homunculus of me... though I think that's actually a fairly rare method of awakening right now. It's called Transmutation!" She pauses. "You don't know that one either?"

This stumps Yanagi for a moment. Then she brightens and claps her hands together. "Ah! Of course! The entity you can summon from within yourself that helps you fight those Demons and Shadows. That! When did you awake to that?"

This seems to be the problem: Yanagi is assuming, just because Yoko can ''see'' them, she can also ''fight'' them.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
She's familiar with the word 'persona', in the sense that she knows the definition and could use it in a sentence if she had to! But Yanagi isn't making sense, even though she's using known words. Yoko doesn't react to them with anything but muted confusion.

"I don't understand," she admits, after a brief moment to consider what she wants to say. Because Yanagi is also sick, and Yoko doesn't want to upset her, and also doesn't know how Yanagi would have liked her to act when she wasn't psychotic. "I don't see auras." She sees a ''lot'' of things, but not those! "I see... I have, when I..." The words get all caught and trapped in her throat, and Yoko clenches her hands into fists from frustration. "...I see things," she says, with the quietness and secrecy that Yanagi is lacking.

Because Yoko's dorm isn't far from here, and she's in Iwatodai often, and if people find out that she has episodes--

She takes back the figurine with a little relief, mostly because the weight of it is grounding to hold. "Yanagi-san, have you been to a doctor? ...Not for your legs," she amends. "It's not really there. It seems like it is but it isn't. Even if it's hard to tell the difference or if it fools us!" she whispers, leaning forward against the edge of the table.

Because a homunculus, transmutation, demons and shadows, these all sound like something out of a long psychotic episode. Or a fantasy story.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
"Well, no, it's not necessarily something you can see. I can, but I understand others can sense them in other ways," Yanagi replies. This is puzzling. This shouldn't be so difficult to explain. Even if Yoko doesn't know what the common parlance is when it comes to Personas, she should at least understand what she's driving at... shouldn't she? ...Maybe she's the one who doesn't understand. So when Yoko starts to explain and gets choked up, Yanagi falls silent, watching her.

She sees things. Yanagi nods once. Yes, she knows that already. But... she seems upset about it. For a moment longer, the issue is not apparent to her.

Then Yoko asks her about a doctor for things that ''aren't really there''. Yanagi stares at her blankly. Then Yoko leans in, whispering, and it clicks. She sucks in a little gasp. "''Oh''," she utters at exactly the same volume as before. "You meant--I thought--oh my! How very embarrassing!" And indeed, she clutches a cheek with one hand as color rises in them. "I'm so terribly sorry, Yoko! I thought we were the same, but we aren't. I thought you'd awakened, but you haven't." Her painted lips purse as her eyebrows furrow in vexation. "It's all because of those odd Persona Users with the silent Resonance! ...No, no, it isn't their fault. It's mine for jumping to conclusions." She breathes out a lamenting little sigh. "That teaches me a lesson!"

And then... she smiles, head tilting the other way. "In any case, it seems we've been misunderstanding each other! Again, I'm sorry to have confused you, Yoko. You can think of what I've been saying as a 'joke' if you prefer."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Gh...! She's not any quieter at all...!

The corners of her mouth drawing back in discomfiture, Yoko hunches down a little in her seat. She'd cover her face with her hands, but said hands are full of resin rabbity thing! Yes, how very embarrassing-!

Yanagi had thought they were the same. Yoko is prety sure they are, actually, but doesn't want to argue about it in a public place. It could already be a problem if other people ''realized''. If they talked. Yoko didn't do anything wrong but she doesn't want people at school to find out, either...!

"It's okay," she mumbles, fingers clenched on the figurine like it's keeping her tethered to earth. "Maybe... maybe I'll awaken sometime." Because maybe Yoko is wrong after all, although she doesn't think so. But even though they'd just brushed on the topic of 'kindness' a few minutes ago, Yoko doesn't know what kindness would ''be'' here.

But she would like to not be made fun of, and she would like to be treated politely, even if whoever she was talking to disagreed, and she wouldn't like to be contradicted when it isn't going to stick. Psychotic episodes, hallucinations, 'weird thinking', none of those can be talked away. (She tried. Her parents tried.) And Yanagi was nice and tried to befriend her.

So Yoko wants to be kind, somehow.

"A joke, like the..." And Yoko realizes that Yanagi might ''not'' have been making a joke about the gun, and she isn't sure whether or not she wants to know. "...Yeah, a joke. That's good."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
That's another problem with kindness, isn't it? It's supposed to be for others' sakes, but when you don't know someone, you don't know what kindness for them would be. Yanagi, for her part, watches Yoko go along with what she's saying while clearly not being comfortable with it, understanding it, or believing in it.

"Maybe," she agrees simply, and lets her drop it at that. Yanagi knows enough about Yoko to know she understands about the pain of misguided kindness, and therefore that will be her own kindness.

Likewise, when Yoko goes along with the idea of a 'joke,' Yanagi nods. She doesn't smile, though, and leans back in her seat to stare into space for a moment. ''Do you want to awaken?'' it occurs to her to ask, but how can Yoko ask that when she doesn't even understand what it means? Absurdly, she might even be right--maybe what she sees aren't actual Demons and Shadows, but hallucinations. How awkward that would be!

So she focuses instead on what Yoko was saying about kindness. About how sometimes it can be a burden even when the one expressing it is well-meant. Yanagi lowers her eyes to meet hers.

"Yoko," she wonders, "is there anyone you'd like to get revenge on?"

That's a very normal way to ask that!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It was easier to be in inpatient. Once she'd trusted her doctor, he was someone who could tell her if something was real or not. She didn't have to worry so much, at least not about ''that''. And if someone else spoke like Yanagi, Yoko knew that they were also sick, and could wish for them to get well soon.

The fae woman leans back as if thinking about something a thousand miles away, and Yoko turns her sculpture over and over in her hands. The weight is grounding. This 'object' is real, and she made it, and Yoko can focus on that. Start small. Work her way up.

So she's completely unprepared for what Yanagi asks her next.

Yoko's hands still. "Get revenge...?" Her strange green eyes are wide in her face.

There would be someone, wouldn't there? Someone she could blame? 'Myself,' if Yoko were still as betrayed and angry and fearless as she was when it was fresh.

But you probably can't get any kind of revenge on your own brain, even if you try.

"No," Yoko shakes her head, eyes shut. "I don't have anybody like that." Especially if the joke is not really a joke!!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
<poem>
It does seem to strike a nerve. That's exciting! Maybe she does want revenge on someone! Yanagi waits for her answer with increasing anticipation, until-- No. No one like that.

"I see," she says, openly disappointed. Which might make it only more befuddling when she adds, "Neither do I."

She doesn't explain what she means by that, or why she asked in the first place, or why it's disappointing that Yoko doesn't if she doesn't either. She simply bundles up what remains of her meal and tucks it into the to-go bag that she had, up until now, been ignoring.

"Oh well!" she says then, brisk and upbeat. "It seems as though we have nothing further to discuss, so I won't keep you from your task any further. It was interesting talking to you all the same. Oh, and I really do like your little sculpture, Yoko! Such a pretty shine--may you make as many more as you wish!"

Another brilliant smile radiates on her. Then Yanagi takes her cane, uses it to help her stand up with her to-go bag, and begins to make her way to the exit.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Yoko wasn't sure what Yanagi would do. If she said yes, named a name... or when she said no. But she really didn't expect ''that''. If she doesn't have anybody she wants revenge on, then why is it on Yanagi's mind at all??

Her confusion must be plain on her face.

Mouth working silently, Yoko sits back in her chair, watching Yanagi pack up the rest of her supper. "Thank you," she mumbles, the statue in question retrieved and held in her lap like something truly precious. Or a talisman, maybe. "It was nice to meet you."

Confusing too. And a little frightening when Yoko thinks about it, and did she mention confusing? But she'd thought Yanagi was a fairy at first, so maybe Yoko is the one who's confusing. Or just confused!
</poem>

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

2025-09-16: Ships In the Night

2025-09-22T20:13:50Z

Rancakes:

2025-09-16: Ships In the Night

2025-09-22T20:13:01Z

Rancakes:

2025-09-16: Ships In the Night

2025-09-22T03:30:16Z

Rancakes: Created page with "* '''Log: 2025-09-16 Ships In the Night''' * '''Cast:''' Yanagi Nagisa, Yoko Hirano * '''Where:''' Iwatodai Strip Mall, Wilduck Burger * '''OOC Date:''' September 21, 2025 * '''IC Date:''' July 14, 2012 * '''Summary''': ''While waiting for the Iwatodai Station cat, Yoko meets a fairy. Yanagi and Yoko try to find common ground but realize they're having two different conversations.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed. <poem> It's said that it take..."

Yoko Hirano

2025-09-14T17:42:05Z

Rancakes: /* Relationships */

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Purrsona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking from the lamps!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Resonance (READ ME) =
'''Yoko's Resonance And You!'''

Her Resonance sense is unusual among Persona-users: rather than as a sound or a feeling, other Personas are visible to her despite not being summoned or even being in a cognitive space. They may appear as a momentary impression and then vanish, or act almost like characters in their own right. Examples:

[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]'s Persona weighs heavy on his mind at most times, and he is constantly aware of the responsibility of having it. Castor, in turn, is a near-constant presence that lurks closely.

[[Minato Arisato]] is has the power of the Wild Card, with the power to don countless masks. His Personas appear as a nebulous and indistinct Jumbled Mess of figures that are hard to distinguish from one another.

[[Umie Akabane]] is an experienced Anti-Navigator with cloaking abilities. Despite standing about three feet away from each other, Yoko wasn't aware of anything from her.

'''THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM IS OPT-IN!''' Resonance is a tricky thing: Yoko is not trained to use it or even currently Awakened to her own Persona, and sometimes things just don't work for no apparent reason. If you don't want Yoko to see your character's Persona, just tell the player so! You are welcome and encouraged to puppet your character's Persona if you want to.

For those who are sensitive to Resonance, their first impression of Yoko's is usually that there's a cat somewhere nearby. They don't know how they know or why it matters, but they do. Deeper observation often brings the scent of sun-warmed fur, a warmth that's nearly /too/ hot to be comfortable, the sound of something rumbling, or the taste of oil.

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Katsuya Suou]]
|VIII: Justice
| ''It's a cat! ...Sort of? Cattish. With a fancy, Baroque sort of suit. Her fingers itch to sketch it but her hands are full!''
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Minato Arisato]]
|0: The Fool
|''A figure leaning to peek behind a box, several blobs trying to peer over his shoulder at once. A crouching boy, the formless things laid out on the ground beside him or draped over the bench. They flicker and change, and Yoko couldn't draw a single one in detail if she had to. The suggestion is everything, the potential for anything chokes out the individual.''
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

Yoko Hirano

2025-09-14T17:38:15Z

Rancakes: /* Relationships */

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Purrsona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking from the lamps!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Resonance (READ ME) =
'''Yoko's Resonance And You!'''

Her Resonance sense is unusual among Persona-users: rather than as a sound or a feeling, other Personas are visible to her despite not being summoned or even being in a cognitive space. They may appear as a momentary impression and then vanish, or act almost like characters in their own right. Examples:

[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]'s Persona weighs heavy on his mind at most times, and he is constantly aware of the responsibility of having it. Castor, in turn, is a near-constant presence that lurks closely.

[[Minato Arisato]] is has the power of the Wild Card, with the power to don countless masks. His Personas appear as a nebulous and indistinct Jumbled Mess of figures that are hard to distinguish from one another.

[[Umie Akabane]] is an experienced Anti-Navigator with cloaking abilities. Despite standing about three feet away from each other, Yoko wasn't aware of anything from her.

'''THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM IS OPT-IN!''' Resonance is a tricky thing: Yoko is not trained to use it or even currently Awakened to her own Persona, and sometimes things just don't work for no apparent reason. If you don't want Yoko to see your character's Persona, just tell the player so! You are welcome and encouraged to puppet your character's Persona if you want to.

For those who are sensitive to Resonance, their first impression of Yoko's is usually that there's a cat somewhere nearby. They don't know how they know or why it matters, but they do. Deeper observation often brings the scent of sun-warmed fur, a warmth that's nearly /too/ hot to be comfortable, the sound of something rumbling, or the taste of oil.

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Katsuya Suou]]
|VIII: Justice
| ''It's a cat! ...Sort of? Cattish. With a fancy, Baroque sort of suit. Her fingers itch to sketch it but her hands are full!''
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

2025-09-05: Searching Is Self-Care

2025-09-14T16:22:53Z

Rancakes:

* '''Log: 2025-09-03 Searching Is Self-Care'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Yoko Hirano]], [[Katsuya Suou]]
* '''Where:''' Iwatodai Station
* '''OOC Date:''' September 05, 2025
* '''IC Date:''' July 06, 2012
* '''Summary''': ''Yoko meets Katsuya and immediately invites him on a sidequest to find the cat that lives at the station. ...Isn't this kind of familiar, somehow...?''

----
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
There's a cat here, somewhere.

Yoko and Arisato-senpai had fed it the other day, and ''he'' had seemed pretty confident that it lived here. Confident enough to buy food to entice it out. And he'd been right! So there's a pretty good chance that the cat must live here, or nearby, and while Yoko ''could'' go back to the dorm and do normal evening things, she thinks it'd be a much better use of her time to see the cat instead.

So she follows the established Cat Attraction Protocols as best she's able: peeking behind vending machines, crouching to look underneath benches, moving aside the branches of an ornamental shrub to look down near its roots. Hmmm... nothing. It's time for phase two.

Still crouched to peer into a storm drain, Yoko realizes that she's already hit an obstacle in her search and remains there while she has a think about it.

Where did senpai buy that takoyaki...?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
When just about the worst thing has happened and all your efforts to address it are met with cold silence, what is it that's best to do?

In Katsuya's case, it's to throw himself further into work. If it were any other situation, he could have talked to someone. In most circumstances, a problem shared is a problem halved! But, in this case... it involves both a betrayal of the fraternity that police officers are ''meant'' to share and the effects of the supernatural realm. If he made a few alterations then ''of course'' it could be 'safe for most audiences', but then, aye, there's the rub.

Who is he supposed to share even the most pared down version of this narrative with? Even his allies... he's not sure if even then it's appropriate to explain it to Amano and Serizawa. And... he gets the feeling that Baofu wouldn't really care one way or another.

So he's kept his his head down at work. When a request came to have a detective head out to Iwatodai to transfer some documents across jurisdictions in person, he'd signed up for the chance. Now that's come and gone and he's... here again, back at the station. He should probably get the next train back to Sumaru.

Instead, he's availed himself of the vending machine for a canned coffee and uncharacteristically, has lingered. It's starting to inch towards evening. He should get home before the train before night settles in properly.

Still, it's July, and the days are long.

Katsuya sneezes, quite suddenly. Is it a summer cold?

Then he sneezes again. No, this can't be a cold. He knows this feeling. There... must be a cat around here. Fishing in his pockets in the hopes of turning up a packet of tissues (he's not nearly so lucky) he takes a look around himself.

If he has to have allergies from its presence, he hopes he can at least see the cat.

...

Did that child drop something into the storm drain? She's been crouched there for a very long time.

"Excuse me. Did you drop something? Do you need any help?"

He's only gone over to do what comes naturally, in the same way a diver gasps as they break the sea's surface.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
She knows where Wild Duck Burger and Hagakure are located, but Yoko doesn't usually go for street food. The dorm has a kitchen and Gekkoukan's lunches are very good, and there's a nearby convenience store that sells pre-packaged meals and snacks if she wants something else. Probably the cat will come out for different food, especially if it's aromatic, but takoyaki is a known winner. Maybe--

Yoko was so excited to see the cat again that for a short time she forgot 'other people' exist.

She cranes her head around, makes a muffled 'ouch' sound, and then stands up. She's wearing the summer uniform for Gekkoukan High (despite looking a bit young for it) and her hair looks like it could use a bit of a combing. "No..."

Her first instinct says to be polite but reserved, as usual. He's dressed nicely, well-groomed, and probably in his mid-twenties. He's probably just someone fancy, but what if he's a host or something--

Warmth. A sweet smell. Soft white powder dusted on an apron.

What was that?

Yoko blinks once, twice, and looks to the side briefly. "...I'm looking for the cat that lives around here. My senpai and I saw it earlier this week."

He's probably a safe person, after all...

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
The girl looks up at him and stares.

A Gekkoukan student. A little unkempt. Middle school-- no, that's the high school uniform, what is he thinking? She does look young for her years, but there's no mistaking it.

Perhaps if he had more skill with resonance, or more experience, it would be different. But he's not Baofu, however you divvy it up. She looks at him and he doesn't sense anything at all or even anything amiss except--

Except. Can't he feel it? There's a cat here. Yes. Just as she tells him as much. "I see... I hope it is not in the drain--"

Katsuya's nose itches, perhaps ominously.

He's just barely able to bury his face in the crook of his elbow in time. Ah, his suit jacket...

He can't help it. He sniffs. "Yes... It would seem so," he tells her, regaining some middling amount of composure. "It must be close by." Does that mean--
--he has allergies??

There is a Terrible Opportunity for Yoko here. Could she use his allergies to find the cat? Surely, they're stronger near where the cat is lurking. ...Surely.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"I didn't see it, even though I was very still. Sen--" Katsuya barely manages to cover a sneeze in time, and Yoko frowns. "Senpai lured it out with food, but I don't know where he bought it." Yoko digs into her bag and removes a clean handkerchief, which she holds out toward him. "You should take this."

Maybe he's got a summer cold. Surely he isn't allergic enough to have a reaction like this without even ''seeing'' the cat...?!

But that's promising, maybe, because it could mean that the cat is ''very'' close!
(For a moment, she actually does consider it.)

"Is there a stall or a restaurant that sells takoyaki? That's what senpai used." Because if she wants to see the cat again, she has to find ''some'' way to coax it out of hiding. "And since I know it will eat that, it seems like the best idea."

And if they can't find takoyaki, then Plan C (for Catsuya) is still on the table...!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"Sempai? Oh, yes," Katsuya both asks and answers himself. Of course. But that helpful upperclassman isn't here today, it would seem. But the girl has something for him. "This--?" he asks, apparently taken aback by the handoff of the handkerchief. "Thank you, but I couldn't. This is nothing to worry about," he affirms, and lifts a hand to fidget with his sunglasses once. Surely he doesn't seem as 'pathetic' as that to need a handkerchief...?

He really should have brought his own. But then, he hadn't expected to encounter a cat.

"A stall or a restaurant that sells takoyaki? Hmm..." he muses, folding his arms over his chest as he considers their surroundings. Truth be told, he hasn't been around here very often since his college days. His work largely keeps him ''in'' Sumaru, outside those events that draw him further afield of late. "There should be a stall or a store somewhere around here. Let me think..."

It will only occur to him minutes from now that he's somehow gotten roped into finding a cat.

"Perhaps the mall? I don't see a cart or anything around here. The mall seems to be the most likely place," he says after a moment's consideration of the likely culprits. "But, is takoyaki really the best thing for a cat? I would think some chicken would suffice. Oh, but it couldn't have things like onion or garlic on it, and those are used so frequently in cooking. Would fish really be better?" he wonders aloud, of all things an unknown adult might muse about off the cuff. "No, it would need to be cooked," he concludes, looking in the direction of the sushi restaurant's sign. "A cat shouldn't eat sushi."

Somehere, Morgana is crying...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"But you're sneezing," Yoko frowns a little harder, disapproving. Still, she can't ''make'' him accept it, so she puts it back in her bag where she got it. If he keeps sneezing she's going to offer it again, though...!

She listens attentively while he ruminates. It's kind of nice that an adult would take this so seriously.

But he's right. If it's not here, it must be somewhere in the strip mall. Yoko knows she can be kind of distracted at times, but... did she really walk past an entire restaurant and never notice it? "Arisato-senpai wasn't gone long. Maybe ten minutes. The combini just beyond it doesn't have takoyaki, either," Yoko thinks out loud, leaving her hand slipped down into the interior of her bag (she can fidget with the things inside of it this way).

"Let's go look," she decides for them. Of course, that's if Katsuya ''wants'' to commit so whole-heartedly to the sidequest! He'll probably bow out, Yoko thinks. Adults aren't very curious, much of the time. Unless...? "You know a lot about this. Are you a cat lover?" She's staring at him again. jiiiiiiiii...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
But he's sneezing.

"I can't deny that, but..." he says, apparently hell-bent on rejecting the handkerchief. ''For now.''

It's the sort of thing that, if he stopped and thought about what he was actually doing, he might have stopped himself or made an excuse. On the flip side, though, perhaps it's just as well: after the last few days (after one day in particular) it's... welcoming to apply himself to a problem that isn't so high stakes, to have a situation where a person's life isn't hanging in the balance. Maybe that's the attraction of it: his unconscious self is of course perfectly aware of what he should be doing for himself right now and has made sure that he can make it happen. It's just that his ego hasn't caught up to reality just yet.

Sometimes, finding a cat is 'self care'.

"Then it can't be far away," Katsuya muses, rubbing at his chin in thought. "The mall over there seems like the most likely place." He nods, at what she has to say. "I'm not surprised. Besides, it would be strange if a cat were interested in conbini takoyaki. Their palates are more refined than that..." Conbini takoyaki isn't terrible, but it's certainly not the same as fresh takoyaki. ...Is he sure he's not just projecting?

'Let's go look'.

He pauses for a moment. He considers her, and considers the request. It would be easy to say 'I have to catch a train' and it's not even a lie. But...
Is it irresponsible, to want to help here and now? Even if it's for a cat? Besides, she seems like she doesn't want to go in there alone. A strange girl. But, he decides, not an unkind girl, if she's worried about a cat. "Alright. It shouldn't take long," he tells her.

Is he a cat lover...?

Another pause. "Well, I do," he admits. "Like cats, that is." He shakes his head, distracted as he considers the area they're in. "I hope that this cat is alright, living here like this. It can be dangerous near the trains," he says with a slight frown. "If it is living off of what people leave behind, too, that can't be good. Even a cat should eat properly..."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Does he really know this much about cats? Is there really this much to know??

If it were hungry enough, wouldn't a cat eat almost anything? Not that they're unique in that way. Not that food is the only thing to long for.

He agrees, though, and Yoko wasn't entirely expecting it. But it's not disappointing! Two sets of eyes will certainly be better than one. "If senpai could do it in ten minutes, we can do it almost as quickly." Isn't she missing a key set of conditions here...? After all, her senpai probably already knew where the food could be bought! Maybe she's just confident.

Yoko doesn't wait for him to take the lead; apparently since this is her quest, she is the party leader?! She shuts the flap on her bag and starts walking toward the edge of the station that feeds right into the strip mall. But she looks over her shoulder to make sure Katsuya is coming. "It looked healthy. Not thin, and not fat. Senpai named it Enigma, because we don't know what its real name is. ...Do you know the poem that says cats have three names?"

"A name that humans call them, a name that other cats call them, and a secret name that only they know." It's a whimsical kind of poem...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Honestly, most street cats would just eat up the first thing that was semi-edible, and then some. Beggars, as the saying goes, can't be choosers, and even the pickiest of cats must give it up in the face of, well, what's actually on the menu.

He should be doing other things. That's true. Yet, he tells himself, he still has some time until the train arrives, and even if he were to miss it, all is not lost. Isn't it also his job as an officer to make sure children stay safe? She should get on home after this, and there's no telling how long she could wander about if she were unsupervised.
There, a perfectly Katsuya-acceptable reason to be doing this in the first place, as if he needed a permission slip for himself, from himself.

There's no helping some people, huh.

Besides, it shouldn't take long.

"Yes, it must not be very far inside. They should still be open." They'll likely be open for several hours yet, in fact.

He trails after, following where she leads. He's not falling behind or trying to ditch her, fear not...!

"Not fat or thin, hmm. That's good. So its name is 'Enigma'? That's not a bad name, but..." He pauses, as if thinking it over. "Wouldn't something more, er... well... 'Shippo' isn't a bad name for a cat, is it?"

He thinks cats should have 'cute' names, of course.

Yoko goes on to remark on the names of cats, though, and-- isn't that familiar? "That was... T.S. Elliot, wasn't it? How did he put it..." Katsuya muses, clearly deep in thought. "Was it, a daily name, a dignified name, and a secret name? It has been a long time since I have read those poems."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Certainly, it's his job as an officer to make sure children are safe. And Yoko is still, technically, a child. Even though she's already in high school and everything!! But maybe he's being a little too strict with himself, even so...?!

She looks over her shoulder again, though this time it's definitely with some consideration. "Isn't it a while yet? People will want to eat dinner for a few more hours..." She hasn't been out here that long!

"If you want to call it Shippo, shouldn't you?" she reasons, looking forward again as they pass the bookstore. "A cat can have lots of names." They've established this already! See, T.S. Elliot said so. "I read it... more than a year ago, anyway." She had read a lot, when she was getting better. "I wonder what other people have named the cat..."

She thinks Shippo would be a good name for a fox, but what a low-hanging fruit that is!

Up ahead are some wooden benches to either side of a nondescript takeout window. There's a delicious smell hanging around, and it gets stronger as they near it. Octopia, the sign declares! And underneath, a short list of prices based on quantity. "It wasn't even upstairs or anything," Yoko realizes. But still, it's good to have found it. "I never noticed..."

But she digs into her bag for a novelty money pouch shaped like a fish, because Enigma is probably hungry and won't care if Yoko walked right by this in the past. "One small and one medium, please," she requests when it's her turn.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
...?

Why is she giving him a look quite like that? Why does he feel like he's just made a child concerned about him? "Well, yes, of course," he hazards, unable to quite shake the sense that something's gone awry. "I only meant..." Meant what?

Speaking of concerns, though-- there's the matter of names. "Well... I haven't seen the cat," Katsuya tells her. "Perhaps there's another name that would suit it better. In, er, any case..." he trails off, feeling oddly foolish about the matter and where this conversation has taken him.

So she's read T.S. Elliot? Was it in class? He doesn't think when he read it it was for class, but the curriculum might have changed -- and likely was different at a school like Gekkoukan, anyway. Don't they take in more foreign exchange students than most other high schools? He thinks he recalls hearing something to that effect.

But into the strip mall they go, and it's practically just inside the door that they find it. What else could a place called Octopia be but a place that sells takoyaki? "There," he says, pointing at the store. Well, that was... almost disappointingly easy. Should he be the one to pitch in for the takoyaki--

But maybe it would be better for her to do it, he decides, waiting outside and gazing up at the ceiling while she does the purchasing. It's during this moment of silence on his part that Katsuya realizes something very, very important, which he mentions the moment she comes back outside:

"Actually... I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Sergeant Katsuya Suou, of the Konan Department in Sumaru." Which is to say, he's definitely a cop and not some weird man who thinks too hard about cat nutrition! No! ...He's both.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
It's a teenager's sidequest. Involving feeding takoyaki to a cat. He was always going to end up feeling foolish, somehow...!

She has two paper boats full of steaming battered octopus balls when she returns, with skewers to make eating them easier. (Naturally, Enigma will not need one of those, because he(?) is a superior creature.) "I got it," she informs him unnecessarily, thumbs hooked over the rims of the containers to provide a little extra stability.

He's waiting for her, and Yoko is about to start leading him back to the station when he introduces himself. "Nice to meet you, Officer. My name is Yoko Hirano. ...'Suou', though?" And ''Katsuya''. Isn't that familiar?

She's started walking already when she remembers where she's heard not-quite-that-name before. It would make sense. The same color of hair, the same build. But absolutely different everywhere else! "Do you know a Tatsuya Suou?" she asks, like it's no big deal at all! Maybe they're cousins or brothers or something...!

Katsuya may or may not notice, but... doesn't it feel like the cat followed them to the strip mall...?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
His nose itches while he waits. Strange, there can't possibly be a cat in here...

She's come back out with two paper boats of takoyaki. "Can a cat eat that much...?" he can't help but wonder aloud. Actually, it's more like 'should it'; he's still not certain that this is the best choice for a cat to eat. "Their tongues can't handle hot things, so you should let it cool down first." Especially since takoyaki can ''really'' burn, if you're not careful and it's fresh. Like many people, he's experienced this first-hand.

Is it the shadows in here? It sort of seems like there's another figure standing quite close at hand to Katsuya.

"Hirano... I see." There's the vaguest sense of... something. It was there and gone, water through his hands.

But she mentions a name much closer to his thoughts than any transitory sense of deja vu. "Tatsuya...? You've met Tatsuya?" Perhaps if he hadn't spoken with Umie already, he'd be a little more overeager than this: he's already giving her what seems like his full attention. "What was he doing? Is he alright?"

Maybe she already can guess the answer that Katsuya gives once he composes himself a little more: "...He is my younger brother," he explains.

And then, quite abruptly, he sneezes again.

It's not just the shadows. Not to Yoko's eyes. As Katsuya deals with allergies that seem to have somehow triggered in the ''absence of an actual cat'' (dander can be subtle and pervasive), she'll see it caught in the light to his side: a cat! ...Well, it's something shaped very much like a humanoid cat, with a long tail and pointed metallic ears, and large feline eyes. It's wearing a very nice suit. It stares down at her, its expression unreadable, its arms folded over his chest, much like how Katsuya's had been moments ago.
The fuzzy image of Helios blurs further at the margins, as if it were standing amidst a great heat, or before a bonfire.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Can a cat eat that much? "...I don't think so," she decides after a brief moment's consideration. "But the big one is for us, so that's okay." That was how senpai had done it, after all, and Yoko should recreate the summoning ritual as closely as possible for the best chance of success.

The shadows move strangely sometimes, it's normally not much to worry about... but... after seeing the thing that lurked near Aragaki-senpai only a few meters away at the bookstore, it makes sense to be wary of any unusual sights around Iwatodai! Yoko's eyes drift across Katsuya, willing the vague shape at his side to either go away or resolve itself into something, because if she's going to be nervous about something it'd be nice to know exactly ''what''.

"Mm-hmm. At an antique shop in Rengedai Ward." Tatsuya, the brave hero of the hour who had stood stalwart between Yoko and a feral extrovert! "I guess he was looking at clocks...?" And looking for a bathroom but Yoko doesn't think Katsuya wants to know about something that trivial.

They pass by the bookstore, and Yoko can't help but glance through the window. No Aragaki-senpai and no creepy horse thing today. She wonders if he ever found the right present... "He was a little..." annoyed, Yoko was going to say, but that's when the shadows finally resolve into a Real Shape and Yoko forgets about Tatsuya Suou.

It's a cat! ...Sort of? Cattish. With a fancy, Baroque sort of suit. Her fingers itch to sketch it but her hands are full! She'll have to commit the details to memory as best she can before it fades!

Which is why Yoko leads Katsuya back to the bench where she last saw the cat, but she's mostly staring off to his right the entire time.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Katsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Can a cat eat that much? No, which is why the rest of the takoyaki are for ''them''. "I... I see. That isn't necessary, you should take care of yourself, first," Katsuya says, uncertain how he feels about this. If he'd known some of this was meant for him, he would have given her his own money! Or at least, told her that it wasn't necessary in the first place. She's probably going to insist.

(Why is it that this, too, feels for an instant like it's happened before? Perhaps he mixed up a memory about someone and something else entirely, instead -- that would make much more sense.)

She tells him as they make their way back outside exactly where she's seen his brother: in Rengedai.

"Why couldn't he have gone home, even for a little while...?" Katsuya can't seem to help but complain aloud. "But, at that antique shop? What in the world was he doing there? Tatsuya doesn't have that kind of money," he goes on. Though, wait, isn't there a rumor on Darkside about that place? That they sell...

Aha. That makes more sense, given what he's been able to piece together about his brother's activities.

He sniffs, still recovering from another attack of his allergies. "He was a little...?" Katsuya prompts then, but Yoko stares at him-- well, no, not at him. To his right. She keeps leading him onward, towards a particular place, her gaze returning to his right.

When he finally gives in to vague paranoia and looks himself, there's nothing there but empty space. At this hour, of course, there shouldn't be anything at all to be concerned about in Iwatodai.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
"This is how senpai did it, so I'm doing it the same way." It's really just that simple! "Plus I would feel bad if I bought something to eat and didn't offer any to my assistant." He's been relegated to sidekick status already?!

The view of the gentleman cat lasts long enough for Yoko to be fairly confident that she could draw it from memory. She might get some details wrong, but the overall impression of it is strong! When they step back out into the brighter afternoon light of the station, it's gone.

Too bad. It was cool-looking, but not scary.

"Are you sure you don't want a handkerchief...?" Or some allergy pills from the combini! "...He seemed a little annoyed at first, but not at us. Me or his underclassman. We met by coincidence." Yoko kneels by the bench and places the small takoyaki boat beneath it. Then she sits down on the other end of the bench, with the medium-sized boat between herself and the next seat. "He seemed kind. He didn't say anything about home or money." Isn't it enough that he'd protected her?

She waits patiently for the cat to appear or Officer Suou to sit down, whichever happens first.
</poem>

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

2025-09-05: Searching Is Self-Care

2025-09-06T03:19:34Z

Rancakes: Created page with "* '''Log: 2025-09-03 Searching Is Self-Care''' * '''Cast:''' Yoko Hirano, Katsuya Suou * '''Where:''' Iwatodai Station * '''OOC Date:''' September 05, 2025 * '''IC Date:''' July 06, 2012 * '''Summary''': ''Yoko meets Katsuya and immediately invites him on a sidequest to find the cat that lives at the station. ...Isn't this kind of familiar, somehow...?'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed. <poem> There's a cat here, somewhere. Yoko and Arisa..."

Yoko Hirano

2025-09-01T19:34:28Z

Rancakes:

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Purrsona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking from the lamps!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Resonance (READ ME) =
'''Yoko's Resonance And You!'''

Her Resonance sense is unusual among Persona-users: rather than as a sound or a feeling, other Personas are visible to her despite not being summoned or even being in a cognitive space. They may appear as a momentary impression and then vanish, or act almost like characters in their own right. Examples:

[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]'s Persona weighs heavy on his mind at most times, and he is constantly aware of the responsibility of having it. Castor, in turn, is a near-constant presence that lurks closely.

[[Minato Arisato]] is has the power of the Wild Card, with the power to don countless masks. His Personas appear as a nebulous and indistinct Jumbled Mess of figures that are hard to distinguish from one another.

[[Umie Akabane]] is an experienced Anti-Navigator with cloaking abilities. Despite standing about three feet away from each other, Yoko wasn't aware of anything from her.

'''THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM IS OPT-IN!''' Resonance is a tricky thing: Yoko is not trained to use it or even currently Awakened to her own Persona, and sometimes things just don't work for no apparent reason. If you don't want Yoko to see your character's Persona, just tell the player so! You are welcome and encouraged to puppet your character's Persona if you want to.

For those who are sensitive to Resonance, their first impression of Yoko's is usually that there's a cat somewhere nearby. They don't know how they know or why it matters, but they do. Deeper observation often brings the scent of sun-warmed fur, a warmth that's nearly /too/ hot to be comfortable, the sound of something rumbling, or the taste of oil.

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

Yoko Hirano

2025-09-01T19:33:09Z

Rancakes:

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Persona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking up the stores!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Resonance (READ ME) =
'''Yoko's Resonance And You!'''

Her Resonance sense is unusual among Persona-users: rather than as a sound or a feeling, other Personas are visible to her despite not being summoned or even being in a cognitive space. They may appear as a momentary impression and then vanish, or act almost like characters in their own right. Examples:

[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]'s Persona weighs heavy on his mind at most times, and he is constantly aware of the responsibility of having it. Castor, in turn, is a near-constant presence that lurks closely.

[[Minato Arisato]] is has the power of the Wild Card, with the power to don countless masks. His Personas appear as a nebulous and indistinct Jumbled Mess of figures that are hard to distinguish from one another.

[[Umie Akabane]] is an experienced Anti-Navigator with cloaking abilities. Despite standing about three feet away from each other, Yoko wasn't aware of anything from her.

'''THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM IS OPT-IN!''' Resonance is a tricky thing: Yoko is not trained to use it or even currently Awakened to her own Persona, and sometimes things just don't work for no apparent reason. If you don't want Yoko to see your character's Persona, just tell the player so! You are welcome and encouraged to puppet your character's Persona if you want to.

For those who are sensitive to Resonance, their first impression of Yoko's is usually that there's a cat somewhere nearby. They don't know how they know or why it matters, but they do. Deeper observation often brings the scent of sun-warmed fur, a warmth that's nearly /too/ hot to be comfortable, the sound of something rumbling, or the taste of oil.

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

Yoko Hirano

2025-09-01T19:32:14Z

Rancakes: Added a Read Me section about how Yoko uses Resonance.

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Persona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking up the stores!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Resonance (READ ME) =
'''Yoko's Resonance And You!'''

Her Resonance sense is unusual among Persona-users: rather than as a sound or a feeling, other Personas are visible to her despite not being summoned or even being in a cognitive space. They may appear as a momentary impression and then vanish, or act almost like characters in their own right. Examples:

[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]'s Persona weighs heavy on his mind at most times, and he is constantly aware of the responsibility of having it. Castor, in turn, is a near-constant presence that lurks closely.

[[Minato Arisato]] is has the power of the Wild Card, with the power to don countless masks. His Personas appear as a nebulous and indistinct Jumbled Mess of figures that are hard to distinguish from one another.

[[Umie Akabane]] is an experienced Anti-Navigator with cloaking abilities. Despite standing about three feet away from each other, Yoko wasn't aware of anything from her.

'''THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM IS OPT-IN!''' Resonance is a tricky thing: Yoko is not trained to use it or even currently Awakened to her own Persona, and sometimes things just don't work for no apparent reason. If you don't want Yoko to see your character's Persona, just tell the player so! You are welcome and encouraged to puppet your character's Persona if you want to.

For those who are sensitive to Resonance, their first impression of Yoko's is usually that there's a cat somewhere nearby. They don't know how they know or why it matters, but they do. Deeper observation often brings the scent of sun-warmed fur, a warmth that's nearly /too/ hot to be comfortable, the sound of something rumbling, or the taste of oil.

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-31T03:57:37Z

Rancakes: /* Relationships */

{| class="toccolours" style="width: 15%; float: right; margin-left:2em; margin-right:0em; margin-bottom:2em; text-align: left; font-size: %110" cellspacing="2"
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font size: 110%;" |Yoko Hirano
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" |[[File:Yoko noneja.png|thumb]]
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''IC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Full Name:
|Yoko Hirano (平野洋子)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Arcana:
|The Moon (XVIII)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Gender:
|Female
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Age (Birthdate):
|14 (November 25, 1998)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Hair Colour:
|Lamp Black
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Eye Colour:
|Acid Green
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Height:
|4'10" (147cm)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Residence:
|A Normal Dormitory, Iwatodai
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Workplace:
|Gekkoukan High
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Job:
|First Year
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Role:
|Focus
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Persona:
|Bakeneko
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#11AD00; border: 2px #488535 solid; font-size: 110%;" |'''OOC Information'''
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Source:
|Velvet Room MUSH (OC)
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Voice Actor:
|Lisa Ortiz
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Groups:
|
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Player:
|[[User:Rancakes|Rancakes]]
|-
|}
'''"It's a work in progress..."'''

She's a strange one, that girl... Always looking *through* people, always saying things that *almost* make sense, always disappearing into the art room when she could be doing anything else! Yoko often seems spaced out or distracted, unless she's creating something. An artist with a particular passion for sculpture, she's confident in classical techniques as well as modern materials. Having been accepted into Gekkoukan High, Yoko intends to work hard to achieve her dream of a scholarship to attend college abroad. She's going to need that work ethic to compensate for an unfortunate ailment…

= Background =

* The only daughter of Momoko and Wataru Hirano.
* Her behavior became erratic before withdrawing from school due to illness two years ago. When she returned a few months later, her personality had become quieter.
* In her first year at Gekkoukan High, and has joined the Art Club.

== Season 1, Episode 1 ==
Something strange has been happening lately... Mysterious apparitions have been lurking around a select few people that Yoko has met, and they don't seem to be the usual kind.

Unbeknownst to her, she has become a person of interest to the Ryouhara family.

= Persona =
[[File:254030 6fF1abm6.png|left|thumb|300x300px|Nyaa!]]
<center>''I am thou, thou art I!''
''Hiding our tails! Preening our whiskers!''
''Dancing in the moonlight, drinking up the stores!''
''We are Bakeneko, the yokai cat!''
</center>'''Bakeneko:''' Bakeneko is a calico cat the size of a Great Dane, accompanied by ghostly fireballs. Its tail is easily the length of itself over again. It's strangely expressive for a cat, happy to stand on its hind legs, with a grin that just gets wider, and wider, and wider…

= Approaches =
'''Wax Poetic''' ''(Friendliness, Focus)'' - Yoko nerds out about something, and her enthusiasm might be enough to intrigue the target.

'''All Dolled Up''' ''(Diligence, Patra)'' - She shows off her latest sculpture. In cognitive spaces her current little guy might perform a trick to impress!

'''Satisfaction Brought It Back''' ''(Smarts, Patra)'' - Yoko Noticed That.

= Stats =
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="2" |ARCANA
!
! colspan="2" |MONAD
|-
|Strength
|14
|
|Academics
|5
|-
|Magic
|17
|
|Charm
|2
|-
|Agility
|15
|
|Guts
|3
|-
|Vitality
|13
|
|Proficiency
|4
|-
|Luck
|16
|
|Understanding
|4
|}
= Relationships =
{| class="sortable" style="width: 75%; text-align: center;"
! scope="col" |Name
! scope="col" |Arcana
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |Info
|-
|[[Kurou Ryouhara]]
|XIII : Death
|''The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.)''
|-
|[[Maria Sakurai]]
|XVII : The Star
|Bright and assertive and extroverted and ditzy and kind. But HELP she is so extroverted pls save me.
|-
|[[Shinjiro Aragaki]]
|V : The Hierophant
|''What... is that thing? A horse in the way a chesspiece is, red eyed, shining black, single leg (how does it balance like that?). A rider impaled. A spike facing out, a spike driven in.''
|-
|[[Tatsuya Suou]]
|XIX : The Sun
|''A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood.''
|-
|[[Umie Akabane]]
|VII : The Chariot
|She seems like a kind person. She was worried when she thought I might be injured. Do combini workers get in trouble if someone is hurt on their shift??
|}

= Logs and Cutscenes =

== Season 1 ==

=== Logs ===
{{#dpl:|category=logs&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no logs on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

=== Cutscenes ===
{{#dpl:|category=cutscenes&season 1|linksto={{PAGENAME}}|ordermethod=title|columns=1|rowcolformat=width=50%|suppresserrors=yes|addcategories=true|mode=userformat|format=,,\n* [[%PAGE%]],|noresultsheader=There are no cutscenes on this wiki that {{PAGENAME}} participated in.}}

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Gekkoukan High School]]
[[Category:Focus]]

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-31T03:46:03Z

Rancakes: /* Background */

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-31T03:42:47Z

Rancakes: /* Season 1, Episode 1 */

2025-08-27: Strange Things Are Afoot at the Triple Seven

2025-08-30T03:06:59Z

Rancakes: Created page with "* '''Log: 2025-08-27 Strange Things Are Afoot at the Triple Seven''' * '''Cast:''' Character :: Umie Akabane, Character :: Yoko Hirano, Character :: Kurou Ryouhara * '''Where:''' Shibuya - Triple Seven Convenience Store * '''Date:''' August 27, 2025 * '''Summary''': ''Umie's job brings her into contact with the /weirdest/ customers.'' ---- <Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed. <poem> Umie isn't supposed to have her phone on her when she's on the job...."

* '''Log: 2025-08-27 Strange Things Are Afoot at the Triple Seven'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Character :: Umie Akabane]], [[Character :: Yoko Hirano]], [[Character :: Kurou Ryouhara]]
* '''Where:''' Shibuya - Triple Seven Convenience Store
* '''Date:''' August 27, 2025
* '''Summary''': ''Umie's job brings her into contact with the /weirdest/ customers.''

----
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
<poem> Umie isn't supposed to have her phone on her when she's on the job.

However, the phone, being an older model (specifically not a smartphone) passes under the radar as it sits just out of sight under the cashier register counter, the view of it sheltered by the hot foods display from any passing eye of other staffers.

At least it's a relatively quiet period; there's nothing she specifically needs to look at, so down her eyes go, trying to glance at the glowing square of light to decipher some words.

..... (+bbread 5/31 for info)

Holy crap, it actually happened.

.... Did they all.. do this?

Is it right that they did it? To force a man to confess his sins...

She wishes she could glance and read more, but her boss is looking out; Umie feigns ignorance by adjusting her hair buns.

She can't even *talk* about it; to talk about it is to convey connection, and interest, and ughgh the next rush of people will be here soon!!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Sliiiide. Pin-pon~

The tread of sneakers on the tile is a little slow, the weary kind of shuffle that comes from the double sin of a long day on one's feet and flagging energy reserves. Yoko Hirano, art student and Tokyo native, trudges in from the evening streets. Her Gekkoukan uniform marks her as being a ways from home, and the heavy messenger bag slung over one shoulder might be a goodly part of what's got her so weighed down.

Ugh... school all day, then taking the train here to study some more...! Her hands are smudged with graphite, a few unfortunate scuffs of the stuff present around the edges of her skirt, and forget about keeping her blouse clean - there are fingerprints on it! And her hair looks like it could use a good combing too, but that might just be the texture.

A stop by the refrigerator section for a bottle of jasmine tea and the shelves for a packet of hand wipes, and Yoko trudges up to the counter. Mmmm... hot food...

Her eyes follow the rollers with a glazed over kind of interest. Has she even ''seen'' Umie, standing right there???
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
Kurou Ryouhara has been here the whole time.

He's still in his uniform from Kasu High, but has pulled on his grey hooded vest over it for reasons that aren't entirely apparent given it doesn't have the sleeves to keep him especially warm. Given Kasu's reputation, it's possible he'd be doing it to deliberately disrespect his uniform.

But the loudest thing about him is his stare as he surveys the products, eyeing each one more critically than the last until finally picking up a box of cookies from the shelf. But another thought appears to vex him as his brow deepens. Kurou checks his phone -- a green smartphone with the screen cracked, and the back of it covered in scuffs and scratched off stickers -- it runs out of the last of its battery and goes blank. Oh.

He approaches Umie at the counter. "Excuse me. Do you know if Triple Seven gifts are supported by the Konan detention center?" Not all prisons allow gifts, and of those who do, it's usually only specific, approved convenience stores, and particular items.

...Which the prisons would be more aware of than the stories, probably!

But even in the midst of asking this question, his gaze starts to wander to the hot meat buns on display, and his eyes get just a little bigger... which is how he ends up sort of colliding at the counter at the same time as Yoko.

Kurou takes a step back and bows at a perfect forty-five degree angle. "... My apologies."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
<poem> Pin-pon~

"Welcome to the Triple Seven," Umie answers, rattling off a short welcome by rote in response to the sound of the doors opening.

... Wasn't there someone else in here, come to think of it? As distracted as she was, she doubts she would have-- ah, there's that weird resonance.

Two Persona users in the store that she doesn't know. Crazy. Gekkoukan uniform, and... the grey hooded vest covers the uniform of the young man, who comes up to ask an odd question.

"I'd have to check... I think so?" Umie starts, swaying her body behind the counter to try to get her co-worker's attention. Alas, they're on break--

Umie's phone jostles to the ground from the massive i m p a c t.

"H-hey, you two okay?!" Umie's body leans over the counter, confirming that Persona user #2 is at least alright, given his extremely deep bow, but the other...?

If Yoko's down for the count, Umie will free herself from the shelter of her counter (after stashing her phone away secretly) to get a better look. "Hey, is your head's okay? No dizziness or anything, right??"

No potential concussion will get by with Umie on the clock. She's too used to being paranoid over them as it is!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Voices talking about something that doesn't concern her. Prison gifts? It's sad. She didn't even realize that maybe you could bring gifts to a prison though. She should buy a meat bun. No, she should buy ''two''. A meat bun ''and'' a vegetable one. It's got leeks and corn. It'd be sweet.

And then-- whump.

Fortunately, her low center of gravity and the fact that she wasn't moving let Yoko get off easy! She stumbles back a single step, but doesn't fall. But still, it's a little disorienting! And it made her forget about the vegetable bun!

"Uh-- sorry," she apologizes too, bowing right back. Her angle isn't that perfect. She was probably in the way...

Wow, the boy who ran into her is stylish. The cashier, too, but in a more casual way. Yoko picks up the wipes that she dropped (oops) and carefully places them on the counter, along with her bottle of tea. "I'm okay. It was just an accident." Is it more than the usual kind of bad news if someone gets injured in a combini? Does the cashier get in trouble too?

"Um. Um, I want to buy some food," Yoko continues. Look, see how healthy and non-concussed she is! "Two nikuman. Please."
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
"Thank you," Kurou says as Umie goes to check, despite the oddity of his question.

The packaging on this bag is ideal for his next gift, but the plan's dead in the water if Triple Seven isn't an approved store... But he thought his phone's battery would last longer. It was at half before, and then suddenly drained... (Well, it's very old, isn't it.)

Unfortunately, THE COLLISION. But thankfully, he doesn't knock Yoko into a concussion.

"I am unharmed," he reports to Umie, as if there was some sort of ''battle afoot'' and not a bump. Oh, the girl did drop the wipes she brought, though... She does appear to be out of it, and the cashier seems quite concerned.

Kurou reaches into his inner vest pocket and produces a packet of smelling salts, looking intently over Yoko for signs of distress, paleness, and any restless anxiety that may indicate an oncoming fainting spell.

... As if the intent, blank stare of his is not cause for unease.

also he just carries those around apparently

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
<poem> There is a certain stylishness to the otherwise ordinary Triple 7 clerk: the light makeup that adds just enough pop of color without it being overwhelming, the ash blonde hair (obviously dyed), and the nails, colored red violet this time, a shade that seems dark until it hits the light, just so. It sets off the uniform and cap nicely, if such a thing were possible.

Seeing the two (especially Yoko, due to how Kurou seemed to be okay when she was moving from behind the counter) alive and well despite her _terrible earthshaking accident_, Umie clears her throat, realizing how awkward her actions just were. "Ah, yeah, just... checking."

Kurou, however, also seems to be concerned. "... Well, aren't you a gentleman?" she says with a small half-grin at Kurou, as he whips out some admittedly antiquated smelling salts. "But it looks like she's good, unless she wants a whiff for good luck's sake..." A bit of sardonic humor, but not meant at Kurou's expense, it seems, as his heart's in the right place.

Even if he may not be entirely with it, gaze-wise. She takes a moment to look at Kurou now, wondering if *he's* the one she should be examining, when Yoko asks for some food.

"O-oh, yeah. Right on it." She's slipping back behind the counter, and gets out the two nikuman, bagging them up. "Have you tried the pizza buns? They're very good." Nice, normal conversation, with two other Persona users, who do not know she is a Persona user. Do they know that they're Persona Users to each other?

It'd be fascinating to find out, but impossible to do.

"My boss is on break, so I can't check just yet," Umie offers Kurou. She's never done it before, somehow, either. Maybe her boss'll say 'no' and she won't have to pretend she knows what she's doing? Only one way to find out!!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Don't worry, Umie! Yoko seems unharmed and more importantly, unbothered by your hasty jump to first aid mode. Nobody knows you're a worrywart! In fact, Yoko is so very extremely busy arranging the things she wants to buy that she very nearly misses something on the other side of the counter - her eyes snap up towards Umie, but all she saw was... a flap of cloth or something, maybe. Not real, not there. Residual, she categorizes it, and doesn't worry.

The bone thing trying to chew its way into the bun display is a little more distracting, anyhow. (Don't look at it don't look at it.) Besides, the boy is staring at her. And holding something. Salt? Yoko, glad to have something to look at besides bone thing, turns her own seldom-blinking gaze onto Kurou.

*jiiiiiiiiiiiiii*

"A whiff?" Yoko squints at it a bit, finally breaking the stalemate. "Is it air freshener?" Wouldn't that be kind of overwhelming, laid out over the aroma of fast food and floor cleaner? If he opens it and it's gross she's gonna retreat...!

The package with the food inside is hot, almost too much so. But it feels good, too. Her fingers are a bit stiff. Yoko remembers to dig into her messenger bag for a wallet shaped like a novelty fish. "Thank you. I haven't had one. Maybe next time I'm in Shibuya."

Complete the transactiooooon. She wants to clean her haaaaaands. Everything will taste like pencil...!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
With Kurou's nails painted blue -- except the yellow on his ring fingers -- and the same color streaks in his hair, he presents a contrast to Umie's warmer palette. Perhaps this is fitting with his stiller energy to Umie's urgency, but...

... But Yoko sees Gashadokuro. A Persona, a skeleton made of skeletons, far too massive to fit within the area comfortably. There's only its giant head and huge hands, clawed around the nikuman display as it gnaws at it. It pauses, craning the skull around to look at Yoko with haunted eyes of bright gold, maw open in a silent scream.

Then it goes back to gnawing.

Kurou blinks owlishly at Umie as she mentions luck, then regards the smelling salts with a faint squint. "... I was unaware of this superstition." He regards Yoko again, as they mirror one another in forgetting what blinking is, and that most people do that. It's jiiiii in stereo.

"Smelling salts," is all he says. He does not open it.

On closer examination, it does seem Kurou's eyes are a little sunken, and though his complexion is naturally on the darker side for a boy of Japanese descent, there's an ashen nature to it. But he's alert and standing. So it's... probably fine?

"I see..." Kurou murmurs with Umie's answer to his inquiry. He looks to the cookies with an intense thoughtfulness. It would be a waste, if he's not sure, but he wants to maximize the time he has to tamper with the packaging. Sometimes the glue doesn't set right.

But Gashadokuro keeps gnawing the display. So hungry...

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
<poem> Kurou himself may have experienced that appearance of a resonance from Umie during that brief burst of alarm, though it's unlikely not in the same unorthodox way as Yoko.

The resonance resolves itself, tucking itself in tidily like a folded cloth into a drawer, unseen, unknown. Tidy and polite, until the battlefield calls for the Badb to arrive.

The Triple 7 is the opposite of a bloody battlefield, unless someone gets a nosebleed in aisle 3. (The Badb does not care for delicious Nikuman buns, but Umie does.)

Umie stands there, looking around to see if there's something around her that they're staring at. She does not notice the Gashadokuro's... manifestation to Yoko's senses.

They're staring in stereo. Do *they* know she has a Persona? Or is it...

Umie itches her right cheek with a fingernail. "... You're... not here to try to buy my work badge, are you?" She can only give in to temptation so many times without it making her boss angry! "Strict policy, no selling work badges." There's even a sign for it, hand-written, which Umie points to.

Besides, it's her means of protection! .... She thinks.

She finishes ringing up Yoko's packages, and unfortunately-- her boss is back.

"Oh yeah, seems we do. Can you handle it, Akabane-kun?"
"U-uh sure." (She's never done it before...)

She looks at Kurou, trying to keep the look of a deer in headlights from falling over her expression.

Instead, she projects the next best thing: a *confident* deer in headlights.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
This has been a pretty bad week for 'terrifying things that shouldn't be there, staring at Yoko'. It's ''almost'' enough to make her consider asking to review her Risperidone dosage. ''Almost.''

"...Are smelling salts lucky?" she blinks. Finally, the horrible basilisk gaze is broken! She turns it on Umie's work badge next, but it doesn't become A Thing again, thank god. "Is it... I thought it was only Seven Sisters' crest that keeps away the Joker Killer." Yoko isn't even sure she believes in that rumor. It sounds weird and unlikely! Why would a serial killer, even a magical one, be scared off by a logo? It isn't ''that'' noteworthy of a design or anything!

Yoko hands over the appropriate amount of money, but rather than take her things and leave she immediately opens the packet of hand wipes and starts scrubbing at the pencil lead all over her hands. She has the good grace to move a little out of the way so Kurou can do whatever it is he does, but not by much.

And then she uses another one. And another one, this time dabbing at her clothes wherever she can see a grey smudge. Is that... actually helping...??
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Kurou Ryouhara has posed.
<poem>
If Kurou does recognize resonance, he does not visibly react to it. Granted, he is not particularly animated at any point in time. Or is his just too loud? It's quite large, as Persona go... though perhaps only Yoko right now has a sense of that. Deeper resonance suggests Kurou's a walking corpse, but he's clearly alive. The dissonance is a quirk of his signature.

And the staring is a quirk of Kurou.

"Evidently," he tells to Yoko of salt luck. Maybe it's a new kind of Rumor he hasn't heard about yet...? But it could simply be an older legend.

His stare shifts from Yoko to Umie, unblinking. With Yoko. The gaze is unbroken, but now is double twice the power against Umie herself. "No. Thank you." That wasn't an offer, she just ''said''...! "... Are you worried?"

About the Joker Killer. Hey, maybe that isn't a normal question to ask people.

Kurou easily slots in where Yoko moves away, unbothered by her cleansing her graphite debuff. As far as he's concerned, maybe this is entirely normal. (And why wouldn't it be?)

He sets the bag of cookies on the counter. "Then this with verification, please. ... And two nikuman." Pause. He jiiiiiiis at the display now. "Vegetable."

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
<poem> "Nah, nah," Umie says quickly, waving a hand. "It was just a joke. Smelling salts are... not particularly anything lucky or unlucky."

"W-well, it's a newer rumor, since--" Should Umie be openly be talking about how she was attacked by the Joker Killer? ... especially since it's difficult to explain how she survived? Then again, saying 'a group of Persona users were nearby and warded him off' seems to work, but that...!

There's now a Kurou staring at her, at double strength. Is she worried? "There was, uh, a rumor, about... an attack here recently, but that person got away, because... of the seven. Seven Sisters, 777..." Umie trails off. (You can't fix a rumor by yourself, Umie. The rumor will be whatever it wants to be, like a cat. You may've ruined it, even.)

"It's nothing," she concludes, giving Yoko her buns and change. "Here you go. Please shop with us again." Please do not associate a serial killer with our brand.

"Alright. Uh, Aoki-san, can you take this over?" Umie finally asks, allowing her co-worker come from the back to take the verification process in her stead. "... Ah, so... Right." She watches Aoki-san go through the process, while handling the two nikuman. "Gotcha... Okay, I'll surely remember that." She will not.

Ringing up Kurou's order completely, Umie bags the nikuman up, handing the complete order to Kurou. "There we go. Please, shop with us again."

Ah, this may be weird, but she's worked Satomi Tadashi during the Dark Hour. Demons are interesting to have as customers...

But even then, people still seem to rise to the challenge.
</poem>

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-28T04:35:59Z

Rancakes:

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-27T04:06:24Z

Rancakes: added shinjiro's social link

Yoko Hirano

2025-08-21T04:53:31Z

Rancakes:

2025-08-18: Killing Time

2025-08-19T11:32:20Z

Rancakes:

* '''Log: 2025-08-18 Killing Time'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Maria Sakurai]], [[Tatsuya Suou]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
* '''Where:''' Sumaru City - Time Castle
* '''Date:''' August 18, 2025
* '''Summary''': ''Tatsuya and Yoko fail to escape from a terrifying extrovert. Maria has an excellent time.''

----
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
There is absolutely no reason for a normal high school girl to be in a place like Time Castle. Even the lower end antiques are far out of scope for the large majority of students at Seven Sisters, and that's assuming that any high schooler would find antiques like this 'cool'. Come to think about it, most of the antiques here are clocks, at that-- is there anyone at Sevens who is enough of an otaku about old mechanical clocks to come into Time Castle?

Maria, in her street clothes, her long pink hair pulled up into a ponytail, isn't in here by choice. But she's making the best of it, starting up at one of the grandfather clocks as if hypnotized.

She'd ditched her friends and slipped away to come in here. But it was for the best. Otherwise, 'he' would have noticed her. Or worse, 'he' wouldn't have noticed her.
Or maybe, her friends would have noticed 'him' and either spoken to 'him' or asked her about 'him', and that would have been worse yet.

At least, she can rest assured that no one she knows -- or knew -- would come into a place like this.

An old man perusing antique desktop clocks looks at her for a moment as if he were wondering why a kid was in here, but returns to his review. Maria's attention remains fixated on the grandfather clock.

Come on, minute hand... move faster! Please...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
JUST BEFORE MARIA ENTERED

"A pawn only has meaning if it can move..." the Time Count speaks courteously to Tatsuya Suou. His expression is, as ever, unreadable. "Hm hm. I can see you're a little surprised that I only have cards, young man. Why is that, I wonder?"

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARotEaobh0

Tatsuya's face is in a deep grimace as he stares daggers at this man. This man... he's taunting him in a way that's unmistakably familiar. Why, he...

"Don't look so frustrated. I'm here to help you, however meager my assistance may be."

Tatsuya closes his eyes taut, and then frustratedly yanks the card out of the Count's hands. Somehow, he's shopping for Skill Cards here, not at that other shady card store in Hirasaka, because he doesn't like unagi kabayaki. It's endangered, you know.

But then the door opens, and--

NOW

There's a young woman in pink at the store now. Well, that's not entirely strange -- this is a store, after all, and people do visit... stores, even if this store seems like an eccentric choice for teenagers. This is the kind of stuffy atmosphere that suits only really rich old people. So why is Tatsuya Suou, in his red motorcycle leathers, here?

Her attention sure seems fixated on that clock. She's really tense. It's like she isn't actually in here for the clock itself, just trying to transfix herself...

...

Now that he's a bit closer, he does recognise her. Maria Sakurai... there's a quiet chill down his spine as he thinks of some far-away memory, but... it's not any of his business to pry. She's here now. Tatsuya puts his hands to his pockets, the Skill Card safely tucked away inside, and slowly tries to leave the store.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> Old mechanical clocks? Expensive antique whatnots? What kind of high school student would think this kind of stuff is cool?

Does it count if the student looks more like she's still in middle school?

Yoko already has a thick sketchbook in her arms when she steps over the threshold, and a pencil stuck behind her ear as well. A heavy-looking satchel on a strap over her shoulder, a baggy but clean tee over wide-legged pants covered in pockets (less clean, more smudges of graphite), sneakers in good repair. Fingertips gray with pencil lead. Inky hair that may or may not have seen a brush today...!

She's looking around with wiiiiide, wide eyes at the complex workings of the orrery, at the understated gleam of tasteful lighting on immaculate glass display cases, neck craning to take it all in--!

And she walks right into Tatsuya. Bump.

"Ow," Yoko complains, in the manner of someone who isn't so much hurt as she is offended that the universe would do this to her.

Oh right, she should apologize. Looking up (and up, and up) at Tatsuya, Yoko's mouth is already forming the word, "Sorry--" when her eyes go even wider. Up close, they're an unusual shade of acid green, but more importantly they seem to be staring right ''through'' him. "......"
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Normal teenagers wouldn't be in a place like this. And Maria looks... pretty... normal?

This may stand in stark contrast to the other young lady in here, who, well. There's no good way to put this. But there's no such thing as a normal art student. Not even one.

Maria, still staring at the clock as if it were the only important thing in the world (come on, minute hand, move faster! keep going! she wants to be somewhere else...) is interrupted in her little fugue by the sound of a person walking into another person, and the little sound of pain that follows. "Eh?"

She stares over at Tatsuya. And Yoko. But mostly Tatsuya.

All at once, Maria comes awake. "Suou-sempai!! I heard you quit school!" She waves at him, broadly.

...she was like that on the other side, too...

Without further ado, she buzzes over to the both of them, gazing ''up'' at Tatsuya. And ''down'' at Yoko. She's somewhere to the middle of their two heights, how fun!

"What are you doing here, Suou-sempai? I'm just killing time," she explains, then giggles at her own joke, because she's ''also'' like that. She jolts then, and looks back down at Yoko. "Oh! Right. Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? ...What's your name?"

Oh no, a wild extrovert has arrived...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Shoot!

He's so distracted by Nyarlathotep that they didn't even think of the possibility that someone *else* could be coming in to the store at the same time. "Ah-- sorry," Tatsuya gruffly grunts out an apology, before realising he's letting his mood affect his voice. Yoko's eyes are just drilling straight into him, however, and he finds it a bit displeasing. He breaks eye-contact.

But this starts a whole chain reaction where Maria recognises him, and waves and identifies him. Great... he could've just slipped out quietly... he's used to being the tallest in a bunch, especially when the other two are girls -- but this kind of uncomfortably reminds him of when the girls interested in him in Sevens are fawning over him. Why don't they understand that he's not interested...?

(Because the aloofness is KIBBLE, Tatsuya.)

"I--" Tatsuya doesn't have an excuse ready. "Just really... needed to use the bathroom."

"Oh ''yes''. It's in the back," the Time Count adds from afar. He's just loving this shit.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> No art student has been normal, ever.

A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood. Yoko blinks once, twice, and takes a step back. (This time she doesn't run into anybody. Progress!)

"Uh-- I'm," she stammers at Sudden Pink-Haired Girl. Takes a deep breath. Breathes out through her nose. Starts over. "I'm okay. I got- distracted by the, everything." Suou-senpai. They must know each other then. Pink like sea shells and tea roses and cooked meat.

His voice is deep--! Ah-- she knew it, he's upset. She said she was sorry!

"I'm Yoko," she introduces herself, holding the sketchbook a little closer. At least now her dread basilisk gaze is focused on Maria! Isn't that a relief, Tatsuya??

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
It's too late, she's already detected her-- prey?! No, surely it's not like that. Hadn't she been dating someone on the Other Side? It should still be the same here.

"Really?" Maria says to Tatsuya, looking him over as she slowly cranes her head to the right. Her ponytail sways in obeisance to gravity, sashaying this way and that. "Then why are you still out here?" She's-- not thinking he still ''needs to go'', right?

Pink like cherry blossoms and kitten noses and smeared blood.

Yoko takes up all of her attention now. Maria nods, emphatically. "Really! That's good. It'd be pretty bad if you got hurt. Where do you go to school? Not Sevens, right?" She's figured out that Yoko isn't a fellow student of hers. "Or-- are you still in middle school?" She reaches out a hand, hovering it just above Yoko's head. What's she doing, trying to figure out how tall Yoko is? "Yoko-chan! Got it. I'm Maria Sakurai. Like, 'cherry well'. Right?" Oh, come on, that's the most common way to read it!

"So, what are you doing here? Oh, drawing pictures?" What is this, twenty questions?

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"N... no, I already... went, I was just leaving," Tatsuya finds himself incredibly bad at following up this lame excuse that he's chosen. He can positively feel the Time Count's grin burning itself into the back of his flesh. Whether Maria is dating someone or not is not something he easily recalls, though... well, it's not like he pays much attention to those who are interested in him.

He's definitely here just for the Skill Card. He's definitely not here because he's thinking of a watch that he gave to the one he loves, in another time, another line.

The way Yoko peers is definitely unsettling, but at the very least, her atetntion is on Maria now. That's a step forward. What is it that she sees? Tatsuya gets a bit paranoid for a second, but there's no reason to make a scene. "No, it's my fault," he tries to reassure Yoko in a tone that's more neutral. "I wasn't paying attention."

Is Yoko in middle school...? Her stature definitely could make Tatsuya believe it, as Maria points out, but it's somewhat hard to pick out an exact age. He doesn't remember a Yoko from Sevens, nor that distinctive gaze -- so perhaps a different school...?

... why is he still here? He should go.

"I'll see you later, Sakurai-kun," Tatsuya attempts to jettison himself out of the scene a second time. But Persona is a JRPG, and the Escape command famously has terrible rates if you're just trying to use the raw command. Is Maria or Yoko going to intercept?!

(The Skill Card is for Trafuri, because Tatsuya is a habitual speedrunner. If only he could equip it right now.)
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> Maria turns the force of her terrible, terrible extroversion towards an innocent artist. Now it's ''Yoko'' who is on the defense! But her eyes follow the sway of Maria's ponytail, like a kitten and a feather wand. "It's-- I didn't get hurt," she reiterates, like she's reassuring Maria - or reminding herself? "I'm a first year at Gekkoukan High. In Iwatodai." When is she going to hit her growth spurt? Soon, right?!

She's looking back to Tatsuya, but this time it almost looks like a cry for help...!

"Uh. I came to practice technical drawing. It's a detailed kind of work used in diagrams and technical manuals. I usually like life drawing better but I thought it'd be useful. And clocks have lots of small moving parts and complicated mechanisms which should be really good for depicting how pieces fit together." Oh, so if you ask her about art, suddenly Yoko can use complete sentences!

Cherry well is a pretty name. And her hair is pink, so it's extra suitable. "...Mine's the normal way. Flat plain. But the yo in Yoko is ocean." She's stopped fidgeting as much, at least...?

And Tatsuya is still bighugetall but she eases a bit more when he apologizes too. Yoko is definitely not from Sevens, on this side or elsewhere, but she's about to be a different kind of problem when Tatsuya heartlessly makes to abandon her to the full force of Maria Sakurai...! "What's your name? Suou-san?"

It's familiar in her mouth, that name. Yoko forgets almost immediately.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Is the worst part the fact that she asked or is it the part where she doesn't even look a little bit flustered for the asking?
...The Time Count may be far too amused either way, Tacchan.

"Oh! So she bumped into you!" Maria tells Tatsuya, clapping her hands together. "You've got to watch where you're going, Suou-sempai! You're tall, after all." ...What's that have to do with anything? But then, Tatsuya might know better than anyone else in this room that Maria is a 'no thoughts head empty' kind of girl.

The old man over there is starting to give them dirty looks. Youngsters shouldn't be allowed in a store like this!!

"Flat plain? Flat plain... Oh! Hirano. I get it," she tells Yoko. "Should I call you Hirano-chan, then? Or can I call you Yoko-chan? Oh! Okay, I get it," she reiterates. "You're just little... But that's great! It's easier to take the subway if you're small." Why is she like this?

"Can I see? I've never been any good at drawing. I like to knit, though! But that's not the same thing," she natters on, reaching out a hand as if she's already been invited to take a look at Yoko's sketchbook. "Neat! I like the way clockhands move. It's soothing." She seems like she could be distracted by anything that moves rhythmically, which is mean, but probably also true.

She nods emphatically. "Yeah! Tatsuya Suou-san, I guess! He's my sempai." Maria pauses. "Or was. He quit school," she explains, passing on that rumor like it was fact...! augh, why are people like this.

Tatsuya makes his farewell. Turning, Maria seems to just about chase after him, her rapid-fire sentences continuing. "Why, do you have somewhere to go? Oh! Do you have a job now, sempai?" Maria says, trailing after him as he starts towards the door. Can he get out of the store before she does something like block the exit?? "Are you late for work?" Why is she being like this!

"...If you're not late for work," she says, a little more slowly, a little more pensively, almost, "Can you stay here for a little bit? I don't want to be here alone."

...So why's ''she'' staying, then?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Tatsuya is summarily stopped from leaving because the gaze that just screams 'HELP' from Yoko reaches him to his very soul. Tsk...!! So, she's a Gekkoukan student? That was... there was a lot of good people there... and then... the world ceased to be... they all died in the blink of an eye because the world just... ceased to be outside of Sumaru City.

Tatsuya still has enough spoons to not just drown in Other Side sorrows, though. "Technical drawing? I know a thing or two, I guess, but not from clocks... just motorcycles," Tatsuya offers to try to offramp Yoko. He kinda spaced out about name readings, though, because his is really boring. "... yeah. I'm Tatsuya. It's nice to meet you, Hirano-kun."

He gets told off for being tall. Well, so-rry...! (A 1999 localisation of this line would've just used '...whatever.')

Maria is a truckful of extrovert energy, though, and even he feels like he's losing the battle, so he feels the need to stand guard with Yoko. She's already on if he has a job and before he can even open his mouth to answer she's ALREADY on whether he's late or not and suddenly he feels like he's got Napoleon's Holy Guard on his ass again.

Stupid Napoleon. Just won't ever leave him alone.

The way to defeat them was to turn the tables on them, and thus Tatsuya employs the knowledge of his previous battles on Maria too, by turning the conversation on her.

"... are you in trouble, Sakurai-kun?" Tatsuya glances outside. The... The Order of the Holy Lance is probably not outside, Tatsuya.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Is Tatsuya so tall that the floor feels like a different country? Does he, too, have his head in the clouds??

"Uh. Yoko-chan is okay." She doesn't think about formalities often. Unless she has to. And then it's worrying! Why do they have to be so important? Maria reaches for the sketchbook and Yoko hands it over easily. Apparently she isn't shy about her work...!

The recent pages are full of detailed line drawings of machinery with little or no shading. The emphasis seems to be on proportion and the relationship of every piece to its fellows. The pages beyond that go in sequences: life drawing, motion sketches, many still lifes. Interspersed between them are... they look like toy designs, maybe, or jointed dolls. There's evidence of practice, practice, and more practice...

"...You quit school?" Yoko asks Tatsuya, now that her sketchbook has been sacrificed to keep Maria at bay for the moment. Yoko that's not a nice thing to ask your would-be savior in his time of need!! "I mean. It's nice to meet you too, Suou-san." In solidarity, perhaps, she inches a little closer to him (or maybe she's looking for a chance to escape too, even if it means leaving her artwork behind)...!

...It ''is'' kind of... a gloomy place, maybe? Or just 'too upscale for a shopping mall'. "Are you waiting for someone?" Because why else would Maria stay someplace like this, but ask for company?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
"Okay, Yoko-chan it is! You can call me Maria-chan if you like." Is that even... a little bit appropriate??

She takes a good look at the sketchbook, making little noises like, 'uh huh' and 'ooh!' and occasionally furrowing her forehead like she just doesn't get it (art is complicated, sometimes). "Do you like dolls, Yoko-chan?" she asks, handing the sketchbook back over after a few moments.

"Just motorcycles, huh? That's right, you have a motorcycle. They're pretty complicated. Bikes are complicated, too," says Maria, a bicycle-rider herself, "but a motorcycle's more complicated." Yes, this is pretty obvious, Maria.

Is she waiting for someone?

"Well, no..."

Is she in trouble?

Maria immediately freezes right where she is, her darkeyed gaze momentarily a blank one. "Yes," she says, which is followed by an immediate, "No! I mean, um, why would I be in trouble? Ah ha ha ha..." Maria is fooling no one, though, least of all herself.

"...I'm avoiding my ex," she says at last, looking away from the both of them. Ooh, touchy subject, if ''she's'' not making eye contact. "I don't want to see him. But he's here. In the mall." She braids her fingers in front of her, clearly ill-at-ease. "So... now that I've bared my heart, you'll keep me company, right? If I wait here long enough, then I won't see him." She pauses, thinking this over. "Probably not."

How is this Tatsuya's problem? Or Yoko's?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Tatsuya isn't gonna call Yoko Yoko-chan, sorry. He's too paranoid about rumours starting if he did... but he doesn't have to at the moment, but they get to check out Yoko's sketchbook for a moment! There's a moment where that facade melts away a little and they admit, "This is really good." Like, professional-grade, even, he thinks. He looks a bit less interested in the still-lifes, but it's still really good art. And toys, and dolls... there's an easy hundred, two hundred hours of practice in here.

That's cool.

"Well... I used to have one..." Tatsuya lets slip. What happened to his motorcycle?? A landmine blew it up. What're the odds?

He quit school?? HE FORGOT TO REFUTE THAT "Uh-- I'm..." A pause. "I'm just trying to figure some things out right now," Tatsuya non-answers. He does notice Yoko inching forward, but don't leave your life's work behind, Yoko...! That'd be too tragic. Tragedy is not supposed to happen on This Side.

The Time Count just politely smiles for some reason.

But Maria admits that she's avoiding her ex, and doesn't feel safe. Tatsuya frowns at this, glancing outside... then gestures. "... hey. There's a service exit out the back, right? Can we use it?"

"Of course," the Time Count answers.

Wow, why's he so casual and blase with the weird owner of this antique clock shop?

"There you go. Do you want me to accompany you out the back? He won't see us if we go that way," Tatsuya suggests.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> "Maria-chan." It's very informal, but there's nothing formal at all about Maria Sakurai! So it's fine, probably. "I do. They can be very complicated, or really simple. You can make an entire little person that fits in your pocket, or an enormous effigy like a wicker man. I like to draw, but I like sculpting even more," she rambles. She doesn't seem to treat the sketchbook with any kind of overt affection, despite all the work that's gone into it! (It's just one of dozens, after all.) But she holds it close to her chest when Maria hands it back over, even so.

It's good. Yoko smiles a small, secret smile just for herself. "Thank you. I want to be a professional when I grow up. So I work hard at it." She squeezes the book a little tighter.

He ''used to'' have a motorcycle. Ah, maybe he had to sell it...? Especially if he's figuring things out. "I hope you find a good answer to the stuff that's bothering you, Suou-san," she tells him solemnly. Maria's problem is more immediate - and thankfully, easily solved for the moment. "Oh. It's awkward," she supposes, rocking back and forth on her feet and thinking. But Tatsuya has the answer!

Yoko leans over to peer at the Time Count. Maybe it's nice to have that kind of relationship with a gentleman...? "I've never been in the service hall. Let's look at it."

Yoko, that is so not even the point. And you just invited yourself...!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Honestly, Maria's grandparents raised her better than this, than to be so rude and intrusive to other people! But this, too, is her little rebellion-- well, that, and just the way she is, no matter how much she got scolded growing up. It's just natural for her to want to talk to other people, and befriend them, and...

Used to? "Oh yeah! I guess it's hard to keep up. I heard you were always having trouble with it," Maria says, spilling a little too much Tatsuya Lore. Well, he was one of the more popular students at school, and one of her friends has a crush on him. You just learn these things, at Sevens.

"Oh! Okay. I get that. I wish I could do that," she tells him, shrugging her shoulders and letting them fall again. It'd be nice to not have people act like she's made out of glass for a minute.

"Really! I haven't played with dolls since I was little, but they're still so cute. I'm trying to knit some dolls lately!" She pauses. "What's a 'wicker man'? Wait, when you say 'sculpt' do you mean, stone?" She stares at Yoko, as if imagining her with a hammer and chisel. "... ...that's so cool!"

"Good luck! I'm sure you can do it," she says, chiming in with Tatsuya's remark and Yoko's response about her dreams. Is it just Yoko's imagination, or is Maria's own smile here a little bit... forced?

Maybe the reason for that's clear, since the whole situation is awkward. --But the sort of awkward that has an easy solution. "Oh right! The service exit." Yes, those things that exist. "So we can use it?" she confirms, acknowledging the Time Count for the first time. That guy's monocle... wow. It's kind of creepy, Maria decides, and in a rare moment of Maria Tact, keeps it to herself. "Thank you! And thank you, Suou-sempai!" At least she's not calling him Tatsuya-sempai. She has some sense of what's appropriate here, it's just... selective. "Um, if it's all the same to you, I want to get out of here. --Eh, you're coming, too, Yoko-chan?" Maria considers this for all of a half-second. "Okay! 'The more the farrier', right?" That's not how that turn of phrase works... "Once we're in the clear, we'll-- go somewhere else!" She turns towards Tatsuya again, bows shallowly, and waves for good measure. "See you around, Suou-sempai! Don't be late for work!"

...Does she just make up her own decision about what's real or something? Really, this girl.
</poem>

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

2025-08-18: Killing Time

2025-08-19T04:31:15Z

Rancakes:

* '''Log: 2025-08-18 Killing Time'''
* '''Cast:''' [[Maria Sakurai]], [[Tatsuya Suou]], [[Yoko Hirano]]
* '''Where:''' Sumaru City - Time Castle
* '''Date:''' August 18, 2025
* '''Summary''': ''Tatsuya and Yoko fail to escape from a terrifying extrovert. Maria has an excellent time.''

----
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
There is absolutely no reason for a normal high school girl to be in a place like Time Castle. Even the lower end antiques are far out of scope for the large majority of students at Seven Sisters, and that's assuming that any high schooler would find antiques like this 'cool'. Come to think about it, most of the antiques here are clocks, at that-- is there anyone at Sevens who is enough of an otaku about old mechanical clocks to come into Time Castle?

Maria, in her street clothes, her long pink hair pulled up into a ponytail, isn't in here by choice. But she's making the best of it, starting up at one of the grandfather clocks as if hypnotized.

She'd ditched her friends and slipped away to come in here. But it was for the best. Otherwise, 'he' would have noticed her. Or worse, 'he' wouldn't have noticed her.
Or maybe, her friends would have noticed 'him' and either spoken to 'him' or asked her about 'him', and that would have been worse yet.

At least, she can rest assured that no one she knows -- or knew -- would come into a place like this.

An old man perusing antique desktop clocks looks at her for a moment as if he were wondering why a kid was in here, but returns to his review. Maria's attention remains fixated on the grandfather clock.

Come on, minute hand... move faster! Please...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
JUST BEFORE MARIA ENTERED

"A pawn only has meaning if it can move..." the Time Count speaks courteously to Tatsuya Suou. His expression is, as ever, unreadable. "Hm hm. I can see you're a little surprised that I only have cards, young man. Why is that, I wonder?"

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RARotEaobh0

Tatsuya's face is in a deep grimace as he stares daggers at this man. This man... he's taunting him in a way that's unmistakably familiar. Why, he...

"Don't look so frustrated. I'm here to help you, however meager my assistance may be."

Tatsuya closes his eyes taut, and then frustratedly yanks the card out of the Count's hands. Somehow, he's shopping for Skill Cards here, not at that other shady card store in Hirasaka, because he doesn't like unagi kabayaki. It's endangered, you know.

But then the door opens, and--

NOW

There's a young woman in pink at the store now. Well, that's not entirely strange -- this is a store, after all, and people do visit... stores, even if this store seems like an eccentric choice for teenagers. This is the kind of stuffy atmosphere that suits only really rich old people. So why is Tatsuya Suou, in his red motorcycle leathers, here?

Her attention sure seems fixated on that clock. She's really tense. It's like she isn't actually in here for the clock itself, just trying to transfix herself...

...

Now that he's a bit closer, he does recognise her. Maria Sakurai... there's a quiet chill down his spine as he thinks of some far-away memory, but... it's not any of his business to pry. She's here now. Tatsuya puts his hands to his pockets, the Skill Card safely tucked away inside, and slowly tries to leave the store.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> Old mechanical clocks? Expensive antique whatnots? What kind of high school student would think this kind of stuff is cool?

Does it count if the student looks more like she's still in middle school?

Yoko already has a thick sketchbook in her arms when she steps over the threshold, and a pencil stuck behind her ear as well. A heavy-looking satchel on a strap over her shoulder, a baggy but clean tee over wide-legged pants covered in pockets (less clean, more smudges of graphite), sneakers in good repair. Fingertips gray with pencil lead. Inky hair that may or may not have seen a brush today...!

She's looking around with wiiiiide, wide eyes at the complex workings of the orrery, at the understated gleam of tasteful lighting on immaculate glass display cases, neck craning to take it all in--!

And she walks right into Tatsuya. Bump.

"Ow," Yoko complains, in the manner of someone who isn't so much hurt as she is offended that the universe would do this to her.

Oh right, she should apologize. Looking up (and up, and up) at Tatsuya, Yoko's mouth is already forming the word, "Sorry--" when her eyes go even wider. Up close, they're an unusual shade of acid green, but more importantly they seem to be staring right ''through'' him. "......"
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Normal teenagers wouldn't be in a place like this. And Maria looks... pretty... normal?

This may stand in stark contrast to the other young lady in here, who, well. There's no good way to put this. But there's no such thing as a normal art student. Not even one.

Maria, still staring at the clock as if it were the only important thing in the world (come on, minute hand, move faster! keep going! she wants to be somewhere else...) is interrupted in her little fugue by the sound of a person walking into another person, and the little sound of pain that follows. "Eh?"

She stares over at Tatsuya. And Yoko. But mostly Tatsuya.

All at once, Maria comes awake. "Suou-sempai!! I heard you quit school!" She waves at him, broadly.

...she was like that on the other side, too...

Without further ado, she buzzes over to the both of them, gazing ''up'' at Tatsuya. And ''down'' at Yoko. She's somewhere to the middle of their two heights, how fun!

"What are you doing here, Suou-sempai? I'm just killing time," she explains, then giggles at her own joke, because she's ''also'' like that. She jolts then, and looks back down at Yoko. "Oh! Right. Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? ...What's your name?"

Oh no, a wild extrovert has arrived...
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Shoot!

He's so distracted by Nyarlathotep that they didn't even think of the possibility that someone *else* could be coming in to the store at the same time. "Ah-- sorry," Tatsuya gruffly grunts out an apology, before realising he's letting his mood affect his voice. Yoko's eyes are just drilling straight into him, however, and he finds it a bit displeasing. He breaks eye-contact.

But this starts a whole chain reaction where Maria recognises him, and waves and identifies him. Great... he could've just slipped out quietly... he's used to being the tallest in a bunch, especially when the other two are girls -- but this kind of uncomfortably reminds him of when the girls interested in him in Sevens are fawning over him. Why don't they understand that he's not interested...?

(Because the aloofness is KIBBLE, Tatsuya.)

"I--" Tatsuya doesn't have an excuse ready. "Just really... needed to use the bathroom."

"Oh ''yes''. It's in the back," the Time Count adds from afar. He's just loving this shit.
Huh? (Type "help" for help.)
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> No art student has been normal, ever.

A flash of red and white. A golden face. Proud posture. The Rising Sun. Somewhere underneath-inside it, a boy with a pretty face and hair that's an exciting color of auburn. Red clothes, the color of passion and blood. Yoko blinks once, twice, and takes a step back. (This time she doesn't run into anybody. Progress!)

"Uh-- I'm," she stammers at Sudden Pink-Haired Girl. Takes a deep breath. Breathes out through her nose. Starts over. "I'm okay. I got- distracted by the, everything." Suou-senpai. They must know each other then. Pink like sea shells and tea roses and cooked meat.

His voice is deep--! Ah-- she knew it, he's upset. She said she was sorry!

"I'm Yoko," she introduces herself, holding the sketchbook a little closer. At least now her dread basilisk gaze is focused on Maria! Isn't that a relief, Tatsuya??

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
It's too late, she's already detected her-- prey?! No, surely it's not like that. Hadn't she been dating someone on the Other Side? It should still be the same here.

"Really?" Maria says to Tatsuya, looking him over as she slowly cranes her head to the right. Her ponytail sways in obeisance to gravity, sashaying this way and that. "Then why are you still out here?" She's-- not thinking he still ''needs to go'', right?

Pink like cherry blossoms and kitten noses and smeared blood.

Yoko takes up all of her attention now. Maria nods, emphatically. "Really! That's good. It'd be pretty bad if you got hurt. Where do you go to school? Not Sevens, right?" She's figured out that Yoko isn't a fellow student of hers. "Or-- are you still in middle school?" She reaches out a hand, hovering it just above Yoko's head. What's she doing, trying to figure out how tall Yoko is? "Yoko-chan! Got it. I'm Maria Sakurai. Like, 'cherry well'. Right?" Oh, come on, that's the most common way to read it!

"So, what are you doing here? Oh, drawing pictures?" What is this, twenty questions?

</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
"N... no, I already... went, I was just leaving," Tatsuya finds himself incredibly bad at following up this lame excuse that he's chosen. He can positively feel the Time Count's grin burning itself into the back of his flesh. Whether Maria is dating someone or not is not something he easily recalls, though... well, it's not like he pays much attention to those who are interested in him.

He's definitely here just for the Skill Card. He's definitely not here because he's thinking of a watch that he gave to the one he loves, in another time, another line.

The way Yoko peers is definitely unsettling, but at the very least, her atetntion is on Maria now. That's a step forward. What is it that she sees? Tatsuya gets a bit paranoid for a second, but there's no reason to make a scene. "No, it's my fault," he tries to reassure Yoko in a tone that's more neutral. "I wasn't paying attention."

Is Yoko in middle school...? Her stature definitely could make Tatsuya believe it, as Maria points out, but it's somewhat hard to pick out an exact age. He doesn't remember a Yoko from Sevens, nor that distinctive gaze -- so perhaps a different school...?

... why is he still here? He should go.

"I'll see you later, Sakurai-kun," Tatsuya attempts to jettison himself out of the scene a second time. But Persona is a JRPG, and the Escape command famously has terrible rates if you're just trying to use the raw command. Is Maria or Yoko going to intercept?!

(The Skill Card is for Trafuri, because Tatsuya is a habitual speedrunner. If only he could equip it right now.)
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> Maria turns the force of her terrible, terrible extroversion towards an innocent artist. Now it's ''Yoko'' who is on the defense! But her eyes follow the sway of Maria's ponytail, like a kitten and a feather wand. "It's-- I didn't get hurt," she reiterates, like she's reassuring Maria - or reminding herself? "I'm a first year at Gekkoukan High. In Iwatodai." When is she going to hit her growth spurt? Soon, right?!

She's looking back to Tatsuya, but this time it almost looks like a cry for help...!

"Uh. I came to practice technical drawing. It's a detailed kind of work used in diagrams and technical manuals. I usually like life drawing better but I thought it'd be useful. And clocks have lots of small moving parts and complicated mechanisms which should be really good for depicting how pieces fit together." Oh, so if you ask her about art, suddenly Yoko can use complete sentences!

Cherry well is a pretty name. And her hair is pink, so it's extra suitable. "...Mine's the normal way. Flat plain. But the yo in Yoko is ocean." She's stopped fidgeting as much, at least...?

And Tatsuya is still bighugetall but she eases a bit more when he apologizes too. Yoko is definitely not from Sevens, on this side or elsewhere, but she's about to be a different kind of problem when Tatsuya heartlessly makes to abandon her to the full force of Maria Sakurai...! "What's your name? Suou-san?"

It's familiar in her mouth, that name. Yoko forgets almost immediately.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Is the worst part the fact that she asked or is it the part where she doesn't even look a little bit flustered for the asking?
...The Time Count may be far too amused either way, Tacchan.

"Oh! So she bumped into you!" Maria tells Tatsuya, clapping her hands together. "You've got to watch where you're going, Suou-sempai! You're tall, after all." ...What's that have to do with anything? But then, Tatsuya might know better than anyone else in this room that Maria is a 'no thoughts head empty' kind of girl.

The old man over there is starting to give them dirty looks. Youngsters shouldn't be allowed in a store like this!!

"Flat plain? Flat plain... Oh! Hirano. I get it," she tells Yoko. "Should I call you Hirano-chan, then? Or can I call you Yoko-chan? Oh! Okay, I get it," she reiterates. "You're just little... But that's great! It's easier to take the subway if you're small." Why is she like this?

"Can I see? I've never been any good at drawing. I like to knit, though! But that's not the same thing," she natters on, reaching out a hand as if she's already been invited to take a look at Yoko's sketchbook. "Neat! I like the way clockhands move. It's soothing." She seems like she could be distracted by anything that moves rhythmically, which is mean, but probably also true.

She nods emphatically. "Yeah! Tatsuya Suou-san, I guess! He's my sempai." Maria pauses. "Or was. He quit school," she explains, passing on that rumor like it was fact...! augh, why are people like this.

Tatsuya makes his farewell. Turning, Maria seems to just about chase after him, her rapid-fire sentences continuing. "Why, do you have somewhere to go? Oh! Do you have a job now, sempai?" Maria says, trailing after him as he starts towards the door. Can he get out of the store before she does something like block the exit?? "Are you late for work?" Why is she being like this!

"...If you're not late for work," she says, a little more slowly, a little more pensively, almost, "Can you stay here for a little bit? I don't want to be here alone."

...So why's ''she'' staying, then?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Tatsuya is summarily stopped from leaving because the gaze that just screams 'HELP' from Yoko reaches him to his very soul. Tsk...!! So, she's a Gekkoukan student? That was... there was a lot of good people there... and then... the world ceased to be... they all died in the blink of an eye because the world just... ceased to be outside of Sumaru City.

Tatsuya still has enough spoons to not just drown in Other Side sorrows, though. "Technical drawing? I know a thing or two, I guess, but not from clocks... just motorcycles," Tatsuya offers to try to offramp Yoko. He kinda spaced out about name readings, though, because his is really boring. "... yeah. I'm Tatsuya. It's nice to meet you, Hirano-kun."

He gets told off for being tall. Well, so-rry...! (A 1999 localisation of this line would've just used '...whatever.')

Maria is a truckful of extrovert energy, though, and even he feels like he's losing the battle, so he feels the need to stand guard with Yoko. She's already on if he has a job and before he can even open his mouth to answer she's ALREADY on whether he's late or not and suddenly he feels like he's got Napoleon's Holy Guard on his ass again.

Stupid Napoleon. Just won't ever leave him alone.

The way to defeat them was to turn the tables on them, and thus Tatsuya employs the knowledge of his previous battles on Maria too, by turning the conversation on her.

"... are you in trouble, Sakurai-kun?" Tatsuya glances outside. The... The Order of the Holy Lance is probably not outside, Tatsuya.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem>
Is Tatsuya so tall that the floor feels like a different country? Does he, too, have his head in the clouds??

"Uh. Yoko-chan is okay." She doesn't think about formalities often. Unless she has to. And then it's worrying! Why do they have to be so important? Maria reaches for the sketchbook and Yoko hands it over easily. Apparently she isn't shy about her work...!

The recent pages are full of detailed line drawings of machinery with little or no shading. The emphasis seems to be on proportion and the relationship of every piece to its fellows. The pages beyond that go in sequences: life drawing, motion sketches, many still lifes. Interspersed between them are... they look like toy designs, maybe, or jointed dolls. There's evidence of practice, practice, and more practice...

"...You quit school?" Yoko asks Tatsuya, now that her sketchbook has been sacrificed to keep Maria at bay for the moment. Yoko that's not a nice thing to ask your would-be savior in his time of need!! "I mean. It's nice to meet you too, Suou-san." In solidarity, perhaps, she inches a little closer to him (or maybe she's looking for a chance to escape too, even if it means leaving her artwork behind)...!

...It ''is'' kind of... a gloomy place, maybe? Or just 'too upscale for a shopping mall'. "Are you waiting for someone?" Because why else would Maria stay someplace like this, but ask for company?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
"Okay, Yoko-chan it is! You can call me Maria-chan if you like." Is that even... a little bit appropriate??

She takes a good look at the sketchbook, making little noises like, 'uh huh' and 'ooh!' and occasionally furrowing her forehead like she just doesn't get it (art is complicated, sometimes). "Do you like dolls, Yoko-chan?" she asks, handing the sketchbook back over after a few moments.

"Just motorcycles, huh? That's right, you have a motorcycle. They're pretty complicated. Bikes are complicated, too," says Maria, a bicycle-rider herself, "but a motorcycle's more complicated." Yes, this is pretty obvious, Maria.

Is she waiting for someone?

"Well, no..."

Is she in trouble?

Maria immediately freezes right where she is, her darkeyed gaze momentarily a blank one. "Yes," she says, which is followed by an immediate, "No! I mean, um, why would I be in trouble? Ah ha ha ha..." Maria is fooling no one, though, least of all herself.

"...I'm avoiding my ex," she says at last, looking away from the both of them. Ooh, touchy subject, if ''she's'' not making eye contact. "I don't want to see him. But he's here. In the mall." She braids her fingers in front of her, clearly ill-at-ease. "So... now that I've bared my heart, you'll keep me company, right? If I wait here long enough, then I won't see him." She pauses, thinking this over. "Probably not."

How is this Tatsuya's problem? Or Yoko's?
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Tatsuya Suou has posed.
<poem>
Tatsuya isn't gonna call Yoko Yoko-chan, sorry. He's too paranoid about rumours starting if he did... but he doesn't have to at the moment, but they get to check out Yoko's sketchbook for a moment! There's a moment where that facade melts away a little and they admit, "This is really good." Like, professional-grade, even, he thinks. He looks a bit less interested in the still-lifes, but it's still really good art. And toys, and dolls... there's an easy hundred, two hundred hours of practice in here.

That's cool.

"Well... I used to have one..." Tatsuya lets slip. What happened to his motorcycle?? A landmine blew it up. What're the odds?

He quit school?? HE FORGOT TO REFUTE THAT "Uh-- I'm..." A pause. "I'm just trying to figure some things out right now," Tatsuya non-answers. He does notice Yoko inching forward, but don't leave your life's work behind, Yoko...! That'd be too tragic. Tragedy is not supposed to happen on This Side.

The Time Count just politely smiles for some reason.

But Maria admits that she's avoiding her ex, and doesn't feel safe. Tatsuya frowns at this, glancing outside... then gestures. "... hey. There's a service exit out the back, right? Can we use it?"

"Of course," the Time Count answers.

Wow, why's he so casual and blase with the weird owner of this antique clock shop?

"There you go. Do you want me to accompany you out the back? He won't see us if we go that way," Tatsuya suggests.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
<poem> "Maria-chan." It's very informal, but there's nothing formal at all about Maria Sakurai! So it's fine, probably. "I do. They can be very complicated, or really simple. You can make an entire little person that fits in your pocket, or an enormous effigy like a wicker man. I like to draw, but I like sculpting even more," she rambles. She doesn't seem to treat the sketchbook with any kind of overt affection, despite all the work that's gone into it! (It's just one of dozens, after all.) But she holds it close to her chest when Maria hands it back over, even so.

It's good. Yoko smiles a small, secret smile just for herself. "Thank you. I want to be a professional when I grow up. So I work hard at it." She squeezes the book a little tighter.

He ''used to'' have a motorcycle. Ah, maybe he had to sell it...? Especially if he's figuring things out. "I hope you find a good answer to the stuff that's bothering you, Suou-san," she tells him solemnly. Maria's problem is more immediate - and thankfully, easily solved for the moment. "Oh. It's awkward," she supposes, rocking back and forth on her feet and thinking. But Tatsuya has the answer!

Yoko leans over to peer at the Time Count. Maybe it's nice to have that kind of relationship with a gentleman...? "I've never been in the service hall. Let's look at it."

Yoko, that is so not even the point. And you just invited yourself...!
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Maria Sakurai has posed.
<poem>
Honestly, Maria's grandparents raised her better than this, than to be so rude and intrusive to other people! But this, too, is her little rebellion-- well, that, and just the way she is, no matter how much she got scolded growing up. It's just natural for her to want to talk to other people, and befriend them, and...

Used to? "Oh yeah! I guess it's hard to keep up. I heard you were always having trouble with it," Maria says, spilling a little too much Tatsuya Lore. Well, he was one of the more popular students at school, and one of her friends has a crush on him. You just learn these things, at Sevens.

"Oh! Okay. I get that. I wish I could do that," she tells him, shrugging her shoulders and letting them fall again. It'd be nice to not have people act like she's made out of glass for a minute.

"Really! I haven't played with dolls since I was little, but they're still so cute. I'm trying to knit some dolls lately!" She pauses. "What's a 'wicker man'? Wait, when you say 'sculpt' do you mean, stone?" She stares at Yoko, as if imagining her with a hammer and chisel. "... ...that's so cool!"

"Good luck! I'm sure you can do it," she says, chiming in with Tatsuya's remark and Yoko's response about her dreams. Is it just Yoko's imagination, or is Maria's own smile here a little bit... forced?

Maybe the reason for that's clear, since the whole situation is awkward. --But the sort of awkward that has an easy solution. "Oh right! The service exit." Yes, those things that exist. "So we can use it?" she confirms, acknowledging the Time Count for the first time. That guy's monocle... wow. It's kind of creepy, Maria decides, and in a rare moment of Maria Tact, keeps it to herself. "Thank you! And thank you, Suou-sempai!" At least she's not calling him Tatsuya-sempai. She has some sense of what's appropriate here, it's just... selective. "Um, if it's all the same to you, I want to get out of here. --Eh, you're coming, too, Yoko-chan?" Maria considers this for all of a half-second. "Okay! 'The more the farrier', right?" That's not how that turn of phrase works... "Once we're in the clear, we'll-- go somewhere else!" She turns towards Tatsuya again, bows shallowly, and waves for good measure. "See you around, Suou-sempai! Don't be late for work!"

...Does she just make up her own decision about what's real or something? Really, this girl.
</poem>

2025-08-18: Killing Time

2025-08-19T04:29:21Z

File:254030 6fF1abm6.png

2025-08-16T16:16:47Z

Rancakes:

A picrew image of a calico cat. (placeholder)