2025-06-27: Interview About A Joker
- Log: Interview About A Joker
- Cast: Ren Amamiya, Maya Amano
- Where: Central Street, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo
- OOC Date: June 27, 2025
- IC Date: June 01, 2012
- Summary: Maya approaches Ren for an interview about Joker. Which one? Well, isn't it obvious?
(|========================== Central Street - Main ===========================|)
-====================================================== Tokyo/Shibuya Ward ====-
Chances are, if you're a fan of a youth trend in Tokyo, it started here. Less
than a five minute walk from Shibuya Station, Central Street is lined with
businesses that cater to youth culture. Boutiques and media stores are just as
common as cafes and fast food. Arcades display the cabinets and claw games with
the latest merch, while back alley shops serve more merchandise for more niche
interests, such as military otaku looking for realistic-looking model guns at
Untouchable.
Drug stores, convenience stores, book stores, discount stores, video rental
stores? You name it, they got it. Sports gyms, karaoke bars, movie theatres,
diners? Yup. The local Big Bang Burger stands out most of all with its flashy
space-themed pneumonic entrance.
While it has a reputation as a safe neighborhood for both tourists and locals in
order to preserve its image as 'for the youth,' darker elements have started to
creep in from back alley folks that try to offer school kids opportunities for a
quick buck or job opportunities for tourists who find their passport stolen in
short order. Or so the rumor goes.
Still, rumors are just rumors, aren't they? There's no reason to hold back, so
come on in, enjoy yourselves.
-==== Players =================================================================-
Ren Amamiya [0] Maya Amano [0]
-=================================== Exits ====================================-
<B> Blast off to Central Street - Big Bang Burger
<M> Take a Yoyogi Park-bound bus to Meiji Shrine
<S> Walk across the Main Square to Shibuya Station - Buchiko Exit
<T> Take a bus to Harajuku - Takenoko Street
<U> Descend the stairs to Shibuya Station - Underground Mall
<V> Welcome to The Velvet Room
(|============================================================================|)
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya Amano was out on the streets conducting interviews.
This wasn't atypical for her. The best way to reach out to Coolest's teenage audience was to go to the places teens could be found -- and the streets of Shibuya were one of them. Until recently, she was usually accompanied by her partner-in-crime, Yukino Mayuzumi. Maya would ask the questions and Yukki was there to snap the photos. Unfortunately, Editor-in-Chief Mizuno had separated the two of them, leaving Maya to work the beat solo.
So far, work had been pretty miserable, but you couldn't tell it from Maya's energy. Was determined to show Mizuno up with an article she couldn't utter one objection to. Everything she heard today so far were things that Maya already knew -- and the little she didn't was so absurd that there was no way it could be the genuine article! (Right...?)
Still, Maya wasn't going to let her lack of success stop her -- after all, she hadn't been out here /that/ long, and besides that, her article wasn't due until Monday. She had plenty of time!
Maya sidestepped a husky businessman who nearly barreled into her, distracted with whatever angry conversation he was having on the phone. It put her in perfect position to approach a prime member of Coolest's audience, a cool-looking teenager in a Shujin Academy uniform with a fashionable mop of black hair.
"Excuse me!" she said in her usual cheery tone. "Maya Amano here with Coolest! I'm doing interviews about The Joker game. Can I have a few minutes of your time?"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Not due 'til Monday. Plenty of time!
(Today's date: Friday, June 1.)
...Yeah, that's the vibe, isn't it? Ren Amamiya has some homework like that. Granted, for a student, that's somewhat more normal. But tomorrow is a half-day, as Saturdays often are in Japan, and there's that festival over in Sumaru that he's interested in checking out, and then on Sunday he has some other plans too...
...well, he'll get to it eventually. As already stated: that's the vibe.
Right now, the vibe is walking from his train transfer to the line that'll take him home to Yongen-Jaya. Shibuya Station is as crowded and busy as usual, and most people are too busy with their own lives to pay attention to a single student, even one with a shoulder bag from which a cat occasionally pokes his head out.
Ren is thus fairly unprepared when a twenty-something woman with an unusual shirt emerges from behind an angry businessman to roll up right to him asking about 'The Joker game.' He blinks owlishly at her, briefly frozen in his slouch, hands still in his pockets. "The Joker--what?"
'She must mean that rumor,' a small voice hisses just behind his shoulder, so low that in the hubbub of the station, only he can hear.
Ren refrains from glancing backwards. Instead, he says slowly, "Oh... You mean that rumor about calling your own phone?" A little dubiously: "Is that really a game?"
The rumors *he's* heard about it have been pretty dire, after all... But maybe this lady--apparently a reporter?--knows something else about it?
If nothing else, that gives him cause to stay when he would /really/ rather not talk to the press.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Well, that's what they call it!" Most people called it that, but Maya did not include herself among them. This definitely was not a game. "Have you ever played it? Or know someone who has? I want to hear all about your experience!" Maya clapped her hands together, primed and ready to hear whatever rumors (or Rumors!) this teen boy has heard.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Huh." Ren considers this factoid. Then he shakes his head. "Nope. All I've heard is you call your own number from your own phone, and 'The Joker Killer' picks up." He considers Maya with dark eyes no less piercing for being half-hidden behind the glare of his glasses lenses. "Have *you* played it?"
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Not myself, but I have encountered him!" Oops. Maybe that was a bit much to admit to a potential interviewee, but sometimes you had to give a little to take a little!
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren's eyebrows rise at that one. "You *met* an urban legend?" he wonders, tone somewhere between doubt and curiosity. He doesn't know much about this rumor--and what he has heard, he's not a fan of--but what he *does* know, it seems unlikely that someone could just meet this killer and get away unscathed.
But if she's telling the truth, that seems too intriguing to overlook. Even if she might well be embellishing the truth or even outright lying. The only way to know /that/ for sure is to engage more. So, well...
"How'd that happen? And how'd you get away?" he wonders. Yup, Maya's got him hooked. Maybe now is a good time to pull him somewhere quieter?
...Of course, the fact that /he's/ the one asking the questions means he's not going to have much information for her. But that wasn't her only goal anyway, was it?
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya Amano was completely on the same page. The streets were becoming busier (and louder!) as the day wore on and she could barely hear Ren's words over the din of the raucous laughter of a gaggle of teens passing by.
"There's a cafe right right over here," she said, gesturing at a nearby shop. "Think we can talk there?"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
For a brief moment after Maya's invitation, Ren is silent. If he looks like he's listening to something, that's probably just because there's so much around here to listen to. Ignore the rustling in his bag.
"Sure, okay," he ultimately decides.
And once they're at that cafe and they've put in their orders (black coffee for Ren), he folds his legs and looks at Maya expectantly.
His questions stand--but maybe she's got some of her own to ask too, now that they have some peace and quiet?
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Green tea for Maya! The last thing she needs is to be up all night the day before she's on festival coverage duty.
"Before I get into /my/ encounter with Joker, I want to know what /you/ know! If you know /of/ the Joker, you definitely have to know something about him, right?!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"I really don't know that much," Ren replies, his shrug a bit hapless. "You call your own number from your own phone, and the Joker Killer answers. Say the name of someone you want dead, and he'll kill them for you." His frown deepens. He would leave it at that, but what this lady told him earlier bothers him. It bothers him enough to make him add, "...I don't get how people could think of that as a 'game.' Even if you thought it was just a dumb rumor... why risk it?"
A beat. "...But if you've actually /met/ him, it sounds like you know a lot more than me," he says, staring pointedly.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Oof. Maybe she was counting on too much on this lead.
Still, she had a full cup of tea to finish. What was the harm in talking about it a little bit more? Besides, maybe she could count on him to be a lead long-term! It might help to have an on-the-ground teenage contact who could keep her apprised of any whisperings.
"You've heard about everything that went on at Seven Sisters, right?" There's no way he hadn't; this particular scoop went way beyond Coolest. "That's where we ran into him. If it wasn't for Déjà-vu Boy, we would have been toast!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren has his coffee too. He takes a sip of it. Silently, he acknowledges that the coffee at Leblanc is much better. He takes another sip.
"It was on the news," he says by way of reply. The principal at Sevens got murdered, and it was said to be the work of the Joker Killer. Ren didn't know if that was really true or not--but this lady is clearly implying it is.
For whatever it's worth, she knows how to spin a yarn. Implying that she nearly died, even though she wasn't alone, and had to get outside help to survive the encounter... It makes it sound much more believable.
As for establishing a lead... it wouldn't be Ren's first time making a deal with some random person he met on the street who nonetheless has a particular set of skills and/or information. Maybe they can both make this work for themselves--and for each other.
For now:
"Who's Déjà Vu Boy?" he wonders.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"You ever meet someone and get that I'm-sure-I-know-them-from-somewhere feeling?" There's a brief beat there, as if Maya is waiting for Ren to supply an answer -- but it's short enough that he couldn't, even if he wanted to. "I get that feeling every time I run into him. In any case, he rescued us and we were able to get away from Joker safely!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren doesn't supply an answer, at least not out loud, so it's honestly fine that Maya goes right on ahead without him. At most, his eyes slid to one side.
Internally, he couldn't help but think, however fleetingly, of a certain handsome hotshot with a name like he was born to be a detective. Yeah. He knows that feeling, all right. The media in Tokyo is so smitten with him, it'd be hard not to, no matter how little he wants it.
That probably doesn't apply here, though.
"Huh," he murmurs, mulling over this. A guy who came to this lady's rescue, against a killer of rumor, whose murders are so brutal and bizarre that even the cops can't solve them... Not like Ren has a lot of faith in the police anywhere, but--
"Glad you made it out okay, then," he says out loud.
Internally, he wonders: did she just describe a Persona User to him?
...and if she did, is she trying to fish that out of him? Is asking about 'The Joker game' supposed to be a dogwhistle? Is she /really/ after the Phantom Thieves? And if so... why did she approach him?
Does she suspect?
"Sorry I don't have anything else for you, though," he continues, expression carefully neutral.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
That just gave her the perfect opportunity!
"Well, just because you don't know anything now doesn't mean you won't know anything forever!" Maya promptly plucked her business card from her jacket pocket. "Here's my card! If you hear anything, be sure to give me a ring!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
If she *is* trying to fish information out of him, her cheery, friendly persona is spot-on. One could almost believe she's just that unguarded.
Ren slowly accepts Maya's business card and looks it over. Maya Amano, with the magazine Coolest from Kismet Publishing... Looks like a business over in Sumaru City. No wonder he's never heard of it. He's barely heard of any of the sights here in Tokyo so far.
"No guarantees," he says. But he also tucks the business card into his uniform pocket, so that's not a 'no' either, right?
It could be useful to have a reporter he can get in touch with--even if he'll also have to take a light touch with her.
For now, though, he's got the rest of this mediocre coffee to get through. Hopefully Maya's tea has been better.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"No guarantees!" Maya confirms cheerily. No need to put undue pressure on the potential contact. If it worked out, it worked out! And if it didn't work out, that was fine too!
Let's think positive!
"I should probably get your name, though!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
"Oh yeah," Ren says, reaching a hand up to twiddle with a lock of his bangs, as if he'd just forgotten and hadn't been purposefully not mentioning it up until now.
Kind of no getting around it at this point, though. He accepted her business card and everything.
"Ren Amamiya," he says, meeting her eyes as he takes his coffee anew. "Nice meeting you, Amano-san."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Amamiya-kun," Maya pronounces, committing the name to memory. Once she had it put away, she gave a little nod, as if to ensure it was firmly lodged inside. "I know you're probably really interested in it, but don't call your number or say anyone's name! And if you encounter Joker, make sure to run away. He wears a paper bag over his head, so you absolutely won't miss him!"
<Pose Tracker> Ren Amamiya has posed.
Ren can't /quite/ hold back a smile. A paper bag? Really? That's such a bizarre random detail that she's so seemingly earnest about that he's starting to believe she really has been on the level this whole time.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested... but he wasn't lying when he said he wouldn't risk it, either. This is a rumor about life and death, and Ren knows perfectly well there are strange things going on this world.
Still... if the Joker Killer actually is real, does that mean he has a heart that can be changed?
Something to look into, maybe.
"Thanks for the warning," he says out loud. He drains the rest of his coffee, then gets up from his seat. "You be careful out there too."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"Thanks! I'd better get back to work myself." A beat. "After I finish my tea!" She flashes Ren a smile, then takes another long sip from her cup.