2025-07-29: Stepping into the Spotlight
- Log: Stepping into the Spotlight
- Cast: Yua Ooshiro, Miho Ijuuin, Ririka Kawase, Umie Akabane, Shinjiro Aragaki, Koh Katsuhiro, Suzume Fukura, Hitomi Mandai, Tyler Gould, Fuuka Yamagishi
- Where: Sumaru TV, Aoba Ward, Sumaru
- OOC Date: July 29, 2025
- IC Date: Sunday, June 17, 2012 (Daytime)
- Summary: Ririka and her band, Polychord, have been invited to give a performance and interview at Sumaru TV! And she's even invited a lot of her dormmates along for a tour of the studio and to watch the taping. Unfortunately, Miyu and Yumi have a mission, one which throws everything into disarray... and in the din, a new song Awakens.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Sumaru TV hosts some of the hottest content on air -- exclusive news, television programs, and interviews! One such interview, today, is for the young Ririka Kawase, whose performance in Polychord was scouted by a man with an eye for talent. He's invited them -- and their friends, of course -- out to Sumaru TV for one of those exclusive interviews, and he's even offered to give them a tour!
(Going out to a place like Sumaru can be dangerous, though... it might be a good idea to take your Evoker, just for luck. Like, what if the rumours are true?)
It's a lovely day, out there -- though you wouldn't know, in the studio. Everyone has somewhere to be, and everyone certainly looks famous. Tragically, the Polychord members are kidnapped from the group early in the tour -- they have to do their makeup! "They'll be fine," the assistant assures the rest of SEES, as she leads them away. "Look! Here's our editing room! This right here is the cutting room floor..."
Ririka and her friend and violinist, Emi Takeda, meanwhile, are taken to a room full of mirrors and lights. "Just stay still, honey," a man with impeccable hair assures her, as he cleans her face off and puts on much heavier makeup. "I know it's a lot, but the lights and cameras really wash out makeup, you know? Annnd a little more here..."
Theoretically, Ririka's friends are supposed to end up behind the cameras in the recording studio, able to get a backstage glimpse of how the whole process works -- and cheer her on. If all went well...
But one of the actors, here, is in a strange costume, all veils and fascinators over her face. The body armour she wears over her dress almost seems real -- though it must be a costume, for who would combine Kevlar with a dress? Her arms are bare, but for the elegant gloves over her lower arms, past the wrist but not covering her elbows. As it happens, that element of her costume design... is all too deliberate.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwNyxeSlnPw Akira Yamaoka - A World of Madness
The actress slips into a bathroom stall, though she puts the lid down before she sits. One moment passes; two, three. Her hands tremble, as she opens one of the hip pouches in her armour, draws out a tourniquet. A needle, already filled. It isn't Persona Suppressant, loaded up in there -- it's not her Persona she needs to survive, imminently.
"If I'm doing it myself... I need to take it, first..." But even talking herself through the process, her hands are already trembling. There is the sound of a tightening strap -- a sharp cry. "Ow!"
Anyone passing by would think -- how tragic! Another starlet lost. She coughs, and blood splatters, across the tile, across her lips... across her face, as her hand reaches up, beneath her veils, able to draw back her eyepatch and see the world through these stranger paths.
As that woman stumbles out of the restroom, a bloody handprint left on the wall, everything dulls down, just slightly. A little less colour to the lights -- a little less vibrancy to the posters. It isn't immediately apparent that the space has become supernatural, though; it's a creeping feeling, running down the spine. It doesn't feel like the Mark, overwhelmingly wrong. It feels like...
It feels like you need to check if your keys are in your purse. Like you can't tell if you really locked the front door, when you left. Like you forgot today is gym, and you don't have your runners. A dozen little doubts, all distressingly plausible, the kind of alarm bells which ring hundreds of times every day. Alarm fatigue is always a risk...
The actress stumbles into her exclusive dressing room, off the side of the make-up checks. She must be an actress -- she's dressed for the stage. (Plus tourniquet, now loosened but still secure.) That horrible, raking cough can be heard even outside the door, though. The stumbling from a chair which wasn't below someone, entirely, when they sat.
"I don't remember that costume..." The makeup artist notes, looking up from Ririka with concern. "Just a sec, honey," he glances back to her, before standing and going out the hall. "Merc! Hey, Mercedes! Are you getting that new drama ready?"
Ririka and her friend are left alone, to hear something impossible from the other room:
"Per...ssso...na..."
Now, the colour shift is unmistakable. It is as if everything goes dark, in the studio, though those close to lights will see they're still shining. Have you ever turned on a torch low on batteries, only for the light to peter out mere inches from its globe? So here do the lights struggle to pierce the dark. In this impossible blackout, even veterans who've worked here for years will find themselves unable to find their way, familiar old hallways feeling hostile and strange. That bloody handprint Yumi left on the wall finds companionship, now, in bloody streaks which seem to appear on the surfaces around people. It is a fear she augments with the sudden isolation of this place -- even venturing down the hall without your fellows could see you lost, because sound is deadened to silence in the studio, muffled by something unseen but undeniably felt. She adds confusion, just the same, to make it difficult for those in her trap to figure out something as routine as a door handle -- not impossible, but frustratingly more difficult, like every door labelled push which needed pulling came to haunt them at once.
Oh, to be sure: the studio hasn't changed an inch. The geography now is the geography of ten minutes prior; no halls have shifted, no doors added. But their perception -- their very perception! -- of the space, this has changed, and for the worse.
From outside the studio, the only obvious hint is the way all the lights, inside, go out. The disruptions in live broadcasts, all cut short by crew who know better than to keep filming when the unexpected occurs. A strange feeling, at the back of your teeth, somewhere between pain and chill. But, inside...
Inside, it is clear something is wrong.
VERY wrong.
They will soon realise that Personas may be summoned, here, though it ought to be impossible. Any attempts at navigation, however, are met with disruption -- something is jamming their signal, blurring their minimap, making it impossible to get a mental map of the area.
That something, Ririka will know -- unlike her friends in SEES -- is just behind that door. There, slumped in the starts bucket seat, Yumi has summoned her Persona, the large woman dwarfing the mirrors and cameras around her. Gretchen locks Yumi in a cage made from steel bars extending from her arms, as her white gown billows behind her, jewels shining. Behind her veils, Yumi's left eye burns with strange flecks of fire... and her eye itself glows gold with such an eerie light, it's even visible through those layers of deception.
"You know what you did," she repeats, in a mantra. "You know what you did, you know what you did, you know what you--!! Rrrhk," she coughs, blood splattering over the armrest. She clasps her arm, tightly, and prays: "Keep it together, I don't want more..."
Teeth grit, she breathes, for a moment. "Turn sinister, now," she says, as if to herself. "That keycard will work -- here he dwells. I see it, third from the right hand, my right hand, do you see it? There, the highest shelf. Tucked away at the end. I'm telling the secrets. He's telling a secret. He knows what he did..."
Whoever 'he' is, he must be terrified, right now, in this blackout which isn't really a blackout.
And not just him.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Blood. ...But there is no obvious blood in the figure who slips through the halls. Miyu will not be seen at first. She has no difficulty finding her way in this place, around the station and the studio. She is dressed in body armor, in gloves, in boots--and a mask with narrow eyes. She steps past a bloody streak--
"I see it," her voice replies to Yumi's. "Yes, I see it. It is here..."
She gets to her unseen work.
It will be done within moments, this bit of destruction. It doesn't take very long at all.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
It's not really much of a secret that Ririka is in a band, even though she tries not to brag about it--Polychord has performed at Gekkoukan's school festivals for the last few years, 2 years at Gekkoukan's middle school and last year at the high school. They've slowly been expanding their repertoire of original songs, too, posting them online to help get their name out there. Last year, they even did two shows in actual live houses--not full sets, mind you, shorter ones, as the events were dedicated to spotlighting multiple sets of up and coming talent, but it still counts.
Their sound can be hard to pin down: they're a rock band, but all of the members--five in total--contribute different influences, and they regularly experiment on top of that--it's perhaps their willingness to experiment and blend influences that's been helping them to get noticed.
Such as for this interview and performance today! And when the studio's booker mentioned they could bring some friends for a tour, well... naturally she thought of her fellow dormmates in the Iwatodai Dorm. After all, how often do you get to tour a TV studio? (Tyler, don't answer that.)
But of course, Polychord doesn't quite get to enjoy all of the tour. When they're kidnapped she offers her dormmates a hapless smile. "Enjoy the rest of the tour! We'll see you on set!"
Today, Ririka's tall (5'10") self is dressed in a dark amethyst tank top, a black leather vest adorned with silver chains, a black leather skirt, ripped stockings, and chunky boots. A leather choker and a pair of leather bracelets complete the look, while her long hair is styled half up in a ponytail, the rest flowing over her shoulders and as bangs framing her face.
Emi Takeda, Ririka's best friend (and Polychord's guitarist/violinist) stands at 'only' 5'2" by comparison. (This is actually exactly average in Japan--Ririka is the outlier by /far/.) Her long brown hair drawn up today into two odango secured with white ribbons. She's dressed in a dark pink tunic top with white lace around the bottom hem, a dusty rose denim jacket on top covered in cute stylized animal pins, and bright pastel leggings adorned with stars. A charm bracelet on her wrist completes the ensemble. emi's sweet, but a little awkward around so many new people; she's been trying, though. She gives the SEES members an excited wave as she and Ririka are led away together.
Polychord's other three members are all taken in different directions for their own show prep.
At the makeup check Ririka settles into the chair. She smiles as the makeup artist reassures her. "Thank you! See, Mi-chan, this isn't so bad."
Emi watches from her own chair, awaiting her turn. "Wow... you weren't kidding about all of the makeup, Ri-chan..." She leans over a bit, catching sight of Yua as she passes by. "Whoa! Ri-chan, look at that costume!"
"I can't really look right now," says Ririka.
"Well, maybe we'll see her later, I wonder what it's for... She looks cool, like some kind of... battle bride!" Emi considers for a moment. "I'd watch a show about Battle Brides."
Ririka's just grins at that. "I bet there's an audience for that." She's still preoccupied with the makeup artist when Yua returns, and she winces a little as something just prickles at the edge of her hearing. Subconsciously, she shifts her foot to touch her backpack, just to make sure it's there.
Emi frowns a little, "We got all the instruments, right...? I packed my bow..."
Then the makeup artist leaves, and Ririka looks to Emi and nods. "Yeah. Harada-san's on top of all that. We triple-checked everything before we left, we made a list... it should all be taken care of."
"Okay, good," says Emi, though her expression is still concerned. "I just feel like I've forgotten something..."
Ririka nods, rubbing at her ear, still ringing a little from... something. "Yeah, no, I gotcha... Might just be nerves. Don't worry, this is just like the last live show we did."
'Per...ssso...na...'
Ririka's eyes widen as she draws in a sharp gasp. "Oh no--"
Everything goes dark, and Ririka clutches at her head. Painful static, just like two nights ago--though not quite so overwhelming. But not quite like the Dark Hour, either. Not like the time she had accidentally witnessed it for the first time. It was different, but in some way she couldn't quite identify. It's not pleasant, but... she can still think. ... Mostly.
"Ririka--" whines Emi, getting up and stepping over to her friend. "Wh-what's going on? Why are all the lights out?"
"M-must be a blackout...." That seems like the logical conclusion, but Ririka knows it isn't true. Why do I know it isn't true? She turns her head and gasps at the bloody handprint on the wall. The woman who'd been stumbling earlier... does she have something to do with this? Is she hurt? Remi stoops low and picks up her backpack, sliding it onto her shoulder.
A solid weight is nestled in the bottom--a good luck charm of sorts.
Ririka pulls Emi to her side as she stands up. "Stay close." Carefully, oh so carefully she makes her way to that dressing room, navigating the artificial darkness. "H-hey-- you okay in there?" She pushes open the door...
AS: Shinjiro Aragaki has readied for combat as Castor! He is now fully healed! AS: Koh Katsuhiro has readied for combat as Zagreus! He is now fully healed! <Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
It may be suspicious that Umie was in the 'right' place at the 'right' time, this time being the Double Slash, via Aoba Way.
"Birthday? Uh, April?"
"April? You are the Scarlet Dragon. You lead the battle, but are rash, hasty, and stubborn."
Umie frowns at the Wang Long addict. "... Aren't these systems supposed to make me feel better, not worse, about myself?"
"As for your friend, August is the Red Dragon. It rules passion, and is confident and adventurous."
"Why can't I get one like that?" Umie grumbles.
But really, it's not suspicious at all, since Shinjiro is there, trying to investigate about the Joker Killer. What does this have to do with the Joker Killer? Does Umie actually know that's his reason for being here?
Life is full of mysteries.
The TVs in the Internet Cafe showing the Sumaru TV channel abruptly shut down, causing at outcry on one patron who was particularly invested. "Aw, man! I wanted to see that Ririka girl!"
Umie looks towards Shinjiro. "You mentioned something about that, right? Hope everything's going okay down there." She frowns, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "... Somebody probably tripped over a cord, or something."
---- NOW ----
See, the moment Umie said that, the moment she disbelieved it. The moment she disbelieved it, the moment she got paranoid. The moment she got paranoid, the moment she remembered Sumaru TV's just down the way.
The moment she remembered *that* is probably the moment the two of them marched over to Sumaru TV. The moment Umie passes over that invisible 'boundary' between the mundane and supernatural, the Badb inside her knows, as she knows.
"... This area's..." Not suspicious in itself, but there's another feeling, a murky gummed up feeling that *shouldn't* be there when her senses come alive. "Something doesn't want to be seen," she hisses, bowing her head, slightly. "And I don't mean the lights. If Yamagishi-san's with your friends, maybe they're having an easier time of it, but it's not going to be pretty." She looks up towards Shinjiro, her hand falling from her face. "Your call. I'm interested, but we'll be going in a space completely blind. I've got no clue what's going on here; it's new to me."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
EARLIER
"What the hell does this have to do with murders?"
Shinjiro Aragaki ran into his battle buddy Umie while in Aoba investigating Joker Killer leads, and she pulled him into FORTUNE TELLING. Unfortunately, his life has been changed forever by learning he's a Red Dragon. (Not really.)
"You can have it," he ends up telling Umie, not quite aware of how this fortune telling business works. But as the power goes out at Sumaru TV, he sucks in a breath. "She's with SEES," he whispers as an answer, before moving for the door. There's only one moment's pause before he speaks again, deciding something momentous.
"You coming?"
NOW
Shinjiro has committed a crime. He carries a long sign from the Sumaru TV parking lot, having immediately decided this is going to be either some manner of bullshit or that he's going to be really mad if it's *not*, because he got all heroic and life-risking again for NOTHING!
"Watch out for sudden Demons. I hear that's a thing," he says. "If they ask you riddles three, tell them to fuck off. It works seventy-five percent of the time."
Grunting as he shifts the sign around onto his shoulder, he immediately worries. What if Akihiko's here? It'll just prove his point more.
Hell, what if *Mitsuru* is here? He can't get executed today. He's too young.
"...let's go in."
He won't say it - but he doesn't want anyone here to get hurt.
Pushing forward into the building, he tries to use the sign to feel tension among the darkness, as mazelike as it is, to find a pathway to... someone, at least. Maybe they'll find people.
<Pose Tracker> Koh Katsuhiro has posed.
Koh isn't about the life of turning down invitations from friends, would-be friends, or random strangers. Ririka is probably somewhere on the former side of that list. So Koh has come to support and examine the studio once the girl has been spirited away to do her musical thing.
The editing room is at least interesting, and he's poking around as much as he can get away with. He's dressed in casual pastel yellow and is making a rare appearance without headphones or Kirijo brand music player since it seemed like it'd be particularly inappropriate when going to listen to other peoples music.
He's juuuust about to reach out and touch something when the building hums to darkness. His hand snakes back in alarm.
Butit wasn't his fault. The boy's fingertips touch to his forehead as the crackle of internal static accompanies a sudden feeling of the rug being pulled out from under him. It wasn't his fault, but it was probably something worse.
"Is everyone still here?" A pitiful square of white light appears as he raises his phone in attempt to scan the area.
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Suzume has never been invited to something like this before.
Now, you might expect Suzume - moody, direct to the point of rudeness (especially by Japanese standards!), sometimes blunt or crude, frequently clashing with others - to be prickly enough to, one, not get invited, or two, turn a trip like this down.
But Suzume isn't antisocial by any means. She likes Ririka even if she teases her (or at least makes jokes) about her height - if she didn't like Ririka, she wouldn't make those jokes, she'd show it very directly. 'Moody' sometimes swings up to the positive side of the scale, after all. She was happy to be invited and happy to accept. Though that gave her a whole new issue:
What do you wear to the TV studio?
Suzume hadn't bothered to bring all her clothes to the dorm yet. And in the first, what, two weeks she'd been at Iwatoda, she hadn't needed them; her uniforms and some jeans, skirts, and casual tops were all she needed. Today she had actually gone to brave her family's apartment and pick up some things.
As a result she looks slightly grumpy when she does show up, because she'd had yet another argument with her family. It passes quickly, because the TV station is fascinating, even though she's not allowed to wander off and see the parts that are actually most interesting to her (anything in the back rooms). She has had to be prevented from poking at an unused camera tripod at least once. In her defense, it had no camera attached and so she wasn't likely to break anything expensive; she just wanted to see how the stabilization system worked.
As she's gently shuttled back to to the rest of the group instead of wandering off somewhere on her own, Suzume checks her pockets. She fails, because her current outfit does not have any; she lost the argument with her parents, which means she's in a skirt and a buttoned short-sleeved top, having not had enough time to change again. She still slouches though, shoulders slightly rolled. It's habitual. At least she doesn't go through her entire backpack, because there's things in there she really shouldn't show in public...
And then the lights go out.
"The hell?" Suzume isn't addressing anyone in particular, but she walks faster, pulling away from the confused staff member sent to retrieve her (who objects, calling for her; Suzume ignores it) and marching directly toward the Gekkoukan students. Well, mostly directly. She's off a little bit because she can't *see* them, until she gets closer, appearing out of the darkness with a stormy expression - a bit of anger to cover unease and, yes, fear, because Suzume does not like looking weak.
She hisses, "What's going on?" She can't see squat. Koh has the right idea, though; Suzume does pull out her phone from the side pocket of her backpack, flipping it open for some light.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Sometimes, you want to support your people. Your famiglia. Your mishpocha. Your -school-. And sometimes, you want an excuse to be able to go by the Cardboard Dragon and quietly drop 3000 yens on a bunch of cards for a game which has planned obsolesecence for pieces of cardboard!
Let Hitomi have this. She needs it.
Either way, she was glad to come. And as students should look like students, she is dressed like a student - in her uniform, which, quietly, she had regretted because everyone else was in casual attire. (Somewhere in Gekkoukan, a laundry basket holds all four of Hitomi's 'good' daywear outfits. Laziness!)
"Good l- no - excuse me; break a leg," Hitomi tells Ririka, with English enunciation and a peace sign! After this, though, they are shown around...
The terror of the EDITING BAY...
Hitomi adjusts her glasses, which have been recently repaired. It's as if some mysterious force popped one of the lenses out and it got slightly scuffed on the side, so it's had to be spot-glued back into place, lest she be piratically blinded.
And then everything in the world... changes. For one thing, it goes dark. "What the hell," says Hitomi on reflex, perhaps used to a random power outage here and there in the course of life... but then she gets her own phone out, perhaps cued by Koh's activities. Now there are two lights! Three, really - Suzume was on the same track.
"... I don't know," she says, turning her head around to peer into the gloom. "It feels messed up, though. What do you think, Katsuhirooo?" At least Hitomi seems to be taking this in stride. Though she's not making her usual laid back calm smile face which she often defaults to. The light gleams off her glasses. Her lips are turned in a frown.
"We shouldn't stay here," Hitomi decides, a moment later. "Wait -- that's bizarre," Hitomi says, finally craning her head up enough to see one of the fluourescent tubes that had, until just now, thrown some illumination on the spaces they travelled. Which now sits, like a dirty streak of faint glowing white.
(She takes a picture of it. Hitomi has the benefit of a relatively modern phone.)
"I think something might be nearby," Hitomi concludes, her tone increasing leaden.
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
Much like Koh, Tyler wasn't about to turn down this opportunity. There's a couple reasons for that. One, there's a part of him that's admittedly, at least a little bit curious about how television is behind the scenes. Despite his misgivings about G.H.O.S.T. Attacks, and his lack of obvious interest in many things, TV... has an undeniable cool factor.
Two, it was Ririka getting the spotlight tonight, and while he was vaguely aware that she probably needed her friends around lately... her status as a fellow musician earns her extra interest, and he wants to hear what the girl has to say.
So, he's with Koh and the other SEES members in attendance, enjoying the tour when everything goes dark.
"Now that's what I call showmanship..." he monotones, looking around. There's something... comfortable about the shift of the environment. It beckons him like a warm hug. The blood on the walls?
...there was a reason 'bleed' was important enough to look up in the little translator book he's got. One of the key items he carries, along with his Evoker. Why? Because spirits are *everywhere*, and now he's a *real* part of their world.
"I'm here, yes." is that a comforting thought for his peers, or not? "...this is either the best tour I've ever been on, or we're about to make contact with the other side." he offers as an answer to Suzume's (probably rhetorical) question, one hand raising up to lower his glasses. Lilac might not darken his vision *too* much, but with everything else already dark. It's hard to tell if this statement is said in agreement or disagreement with Hitomi's suggestion not to stay there, his tone doesn't give it away.
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Fuuka Yamagishi isn't quite back up to one hundred percent, yet, but she's recovered enough from her ordeal to be up and moving around. She can't spend all day in bed - and so when she's invited to go along with the dorm's actual residents to see Ririka's interview, she gladly accepts.
It's a rare opportunity for her. She's never really received an invitation like this before... She initially wondered if she should accept, if she'd just feel like a tagalong... But right now, being alone in the dorm would be worse. She wants to be around people more, right now.
After a trip over to the studio in Sumaru City, Ririka and her friend are ushered away - and the rest of them are lead to the editing room.
"Oh, that might be interesting..." Fuuka considers. It would be interesting to see how they do it - she has an idea, of course, but it's different from getting to see their equipment up close.
And she certainly takes the opportunity to study it. She has quite a few questions for the assistant about the process, assuming she sticks around.
...But at a certain point she stops herself abruptly, a look of embarrassment crossing her face. Her senses catch on to the subtle sense of strangeness - but she's not used to it enough, yet, to be able to determine what it is. And so, for a moment, it's drowned out by the feeling that she may be being a bother right now. That it's strange for her to take that much interest in it - that she should just stop pestering the woman and let her do her job...
"...Um... thank you." Fuuka murmurs, looking away.
And it isn't long after that, that everything changes. Everything goes dark and Fuuka looks up, a gasp escaping her lips. She can feel the shift as it happens.
"What is this feeling...?" She murmurs. "Something's wrong, I don't..."
It feels somewhat like being stuck in Tartarus again, though lacking a certain tinge to her senses... Similar, but different. Her breath quickens. Even so, it feels like she's been cut off from the world. That there is nothing outside this room - that if she were to leave it, there would be nothing, and she would be lost forever.
She looks toward Suzume as she enters the room. Fuuka feels a sudden surge of relief. There are still people out there. They aren't trapped here.
"I-I don't know, either." She admits. They shouldn't stay here. Something might be out there, Hitomi says. But, if it's like Tartarus...
"...Wait. Let me try something." She says. Slowly, Fuuka reaches for the Evoker she brought with her. It isn't hers - she hasn't given it back, yet. She points, and fires -
- and heralded by the sound of breaking glass, Lucia appears around her. Her instinct was right, to a degree. And yet...
"...It's... I can't see anything. My vision is clouded... Lucia, what's in our way...?" Fuuka murmurs. It's not like before, where she could see the layout of Tartarus spread out before her and the monsters lurking the halls outlined in her vision.
No - it's as if there's something clouding Lucia's eyes. Is that a natural part of this space, or is something behind it...?
"I can't sense anything... Shadows, or people. We should proceed carefully." She says. Lucia fades away.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Umie and Shinjiro will find that any normal security around Sumaru TV is presently far too confused to keep them out; they're free to enter the darkness, though they're not as free to leave, once they step out of view of the door. This isn't necessarily because anything is keeping them there -- but just because they'd have to find the door again to go back out. Shinjiro's signage at least helps him to feel things out, much like a pole thrust into the water to judge just how deep it goes, down there.
Phone light struggles just as much as the professional lightning, but there's one comforting thing about it -- it's in your hands, a thing you can carry with you and control under your own power. Still, Hitomi's right -- this place suddenly feels much more hostile. More strange, more frightening, more... everything Tyler loves.
Fuuka calls on Lucia, though -- and deep in the building, Yumi looks up. "Resistance? Resistance! Be lost in a thousand mazes!" And one thing will surely be clear to Fuuka's keen intuition, as that fuzziness redoubles, over her -- this interference is deliberate. She's being targeted by something... even if that's a deduction she has to make by process of exclusion.
But Ririka calls out to ask if she's okay, and she looks to the door, focusing on the space around her instead of the entire arena for a moment. "Something's echoing," she says, in the starlet's dressing room, "... here!"
Is it a cry for help? No, a warning. When the lights of the starlet's dresser grow close, for Rirka and Emi, suddenly they shine in the dark -- like more of those torches with hungry batteries. They gleam, dimly illuminating Gretchen and the woman who's coughed up blood inside her. The splatters gleam almost too much, in the strangeness of the station, glittering like something other than blood.
Perhaps it is a kindness, veiling this brutality in a layer of otherworldliness.
"Oh!" Yumi exclaims, one hand holding a gleaming, six-chambered revolver, as the other grasps at Gretchen's bars. "Oh, suffer the children! Why? Why?! Why are you here?!" Her fist pounds, at the steel, as she cries: "Why?! Why?! Why?!"
Gretchen stands, impervious to her anguish, and surely it must seem as if she is inflicting some terrible fate onto Yumi. But when Gretchen spreads her arms, lifting the bars from Yumi, she stumbles out and reaches to them.
"All right, it's all right," she assures them, behind her veils, her voice trembling. "It's aa--aahghk," she coughs, again, and a few more flecks of red fly from her lips to her fingertips. "C--come here... oh... Gretchen!"
And that giant woman flows forward -- she does not seem to step, like a woman ought to step -- to sweep Ririka and Emi into the room with those metal bars, before she disappears to nothing. She's not trying to hurt them; it may still be terrifying.
"The door... will not open," Yumi says, breathless, as she lays her hand on the handle. "In this place, remain. Where you will be safe... here..." She closes the door, behind her. The door is not locked; the BELIEF that it is locked is more difficult still to overcome.
Mercifully, the horrors of the studio lessen, around Ririka and Emi, as the door shuts, and Yumi stumbles out into the main dressing room. It's surprisingly spacious, in here. They have to have room for a lot of different costumes, which means there's also room for... "Gretchen," Yumi invokes, placing her Evoker to her eye and firing.
That vast woman encircles her, again, as she grasps onto her skirts. "Miyu," she cries out, "Miyu! Oh, I knew you could do it... but it keeps coming out. Into me and into me and oh, my beloved Trojan, she's let them in! My penance, my penance, my sentence is... something's wrong. Something's wrong!... oh, to your left, your left, straight on..."
It is a distress call, confused though it might be, though eventually Yumi manages to orient herself enough to direct her other half to her again.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
As it happens, the secret to destruction is not just exposing tape and smashing cases. A little concentrated Curse goes a long way to utterly removing something from existence. But that's not the problem at the moment. The problem is this:
'Something's wrong.'
Yumi stumbles out, but Miyu does not stumble as she continues through the halls. It is a few moments before she can arrive, all the same. But that distress call--
It is answered.
"I am here!" a woman in battle armor and a mask says, and quickly closes the distance to where Yumi is. "Shh," she says, and pulls medicine. She has a syringe; she has the medication in the syringe. She gently applies it to her counterpart.
Another presence...
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Ririka is glad Koh accepted the invitation! Even if they don't really know each other that well, maybe this can be a way they get to know each other better! At the very least, it'll be something they can talk about later, even if the demands of production separate them in the moment.
Ririka wouldn't have dared dream of not inviting Suzume just because it seemed like she might not like it. That would be rude, to assume, and besides... she likes Suzume. She's always happy to hang with another girl who likes fighting games. And she was glad to see Suzume show up, even if she started a little grumpy.
Ririka won't object to Hitomi making a detour to the Cardboard Dragon! She might even ask about the cards later if she sees them. She'd grinned at Hiomi as she was being whisked away, flashing her a thumbs up. "Thank you!"
She's glad to have Tyler along, as well. They had at least talked music before, and they'd gotten to share a trip out to Sumaru the day before to get the lay of the land. (She doesn't know what other connections he might have to Television as a general concept, though.)
The circumstances of inviting Fuuka might, well... be kind of awkward. They'd only met by her failing to take action to help in her rescue, but... Well, she'd spent 10 days--or hours--in the Dark Hour, and... maybe it'd be nice to invite her to do something fun in the wake of that?
... Of course this had to go and happen...
Ririka and Emi both gasp in unison as the lights come up, as Gretchen and Yumi are both revealed--along with all that blood. It might be a kindness, but in some ways it just makes things more dire.
And it reminds Ririka of the blood of the Dark Hour, an image still vivid and fresh in her mind.
Emi gasps, and steps back. "U-um, we... we..." Her voice is shaking. This should be a simple question, but in these circumstances it's anything but.
Ririka, though, isn't sure how to react--she's scared but she also knows slightly more than she should. Like what a Persona is, for instance. "We were here for makeup?"
But Yua reaches for them, and Emi recoils. Ririka subconsciously steps in front of her. 'Come here,' she says. "Um, we g-gotta find our agent..." She's trying to back them away, to--somehow--run for safety.
But Gretchen is too fast for them, scooping them into the room with nary a second thought. Yua bids them to stay, where it will be 'safe'. Ririka doubts that, the static still busing in her ear, but she's not inclined to test opening the door either. Not with Yumi out there.
"Ririka..." said Emi in a quiet, trembling voice. "... I don't think I like it here anymore..."
Ririka whirled around and dropped down to draw her friend into a hug. "I know, Emi. It's okay, I'm scared, too. But we'll get through this together." The two hugged, and Ririka hummed to herself, trying to sooth and organize her own racing thoughts--there was still static filling her ears, even if it had lessened.
Could they wait for her friends to find them? No, what if there were Shadows or something here--it didn't feel like the Dark Hour but that just meant that she didn't know what the rules even were. And that woman had claimed not to want to hurt them but if she changed her mind...
That meant... she had to do something, to protect herself and her oldest and dearest friend. She straightened up, holding her friend's shoulders. "Emi, I can do something to help, but it's going to seem scary. I need you to trust me, okay?"
Emi looks up into her friend's eyes and slowly nods. "O-okay. I trust you."
"Good." Ririka unshoulders her bag and digs through it, down to the bottom--the feel of cold metal is a shock to her senses, even as she firmly curls her finger around it to draw it out. It looks like a gun, but it isn't--it's an Evoker.
The fact that it isn't a gun doesn't keep her heart from hammering in her chest as she turns to face the door. Ririka brings the Evoker up to her head. Her hand trembles, but she tightens her grip. She closes her eyes, and in a quiet voice says, "Persona."
The sound of it is deafening. But it is not broken bone that emerges, but broken glass--glass and blue flame whirl about in the dressing room, forming into the shape of a man made of stone. He has glowing red eyes, and is wrapped in a black toga. Thick, heavy boots weigh down his steps, wrapped in golden chains secured with gold padlocks, and in his hands he carries a sleek golden lyre with holographic strings.
Ririka gasps, glowing eyes opening wide suddenly. All of that noise has suddenly become sound, notes and phrases and melodies weaving around her, woven through the fabric of the world itself. She understands now, what she had only been able to half-perceive before. But it is still too much...
Silently, Amphion--she understands that now, too--removes a pair of large headphones from around his neck and places them on Ririka's head. Suddenly the excess sounds fall away, and she can focus on exactly the things she needs to hear.
That woman right outside the dressing room--Ririka draws in a sharp breath. A sour, out of tune chord, jangling harshly. And elsewhere in the studio, outside of the dressing room, she hears that same chord echoing. That woman has to be the source of everything happening.
But there is another tone joining hers, dark and foreboding. Off-kilter, but not in the same way as the first. Yet together... strangely, Ririka can hear a strange sort of harmony between the two. An accomplice, then...
But theirs aren't the only notes she can hear, among the confusion in the rest of the studio. Five brighter notes, clustered together, call out to her, and Ririka can't help but smile as they draw her attention. That must be the other members of SEES. They're trapped, wrapped in the strange cacophony echoing out from the strange woman...
But she can reach out--the thing she'd desperately needed to do for far, far too long--and so she does, forming a connection, projecting her voice into their thoughts. Everybody. I need your help. There's no time to explain, just follow the music.
She reaches out with her hands, and underneath her fingers piano keys made of light suddenly spring into being, responding to her touch. She begins to play, casting a melody out, a lifeline of crisp, clear notes to cut through the confusion.
BGM: Searching for Friends (Piano arr.) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGHnqHg9VMA
Emi lets out a shriek of confusion as she turns to behold Amphion standing behind her, but Ririka looks to her over her shoulder with a small smile. "Don't worry, Mi-chan. Amphion's here to protect us. And there's more help on the way. Amphion, protect us!"
Amphion strums his golden lyre, holographic strings shimmering with his touch. From the ground surges the feeling of the earth, solid and steady, flowing up through Ririka and Emi to help protect them from damage.
But there's more than just SEES here, too--two other signatures stand out, two more distinct notes, both largely unfamiliar, but they seem to be here to investigate and help. And so she reaches out to Umie and Shinjiro, too, casting her song that way as well. Sorry, this might be a bit awkward, since we don't know each other, but if you're here to help, then please, follow the music.
AS: Ririka Kawase has readied for combat as Amphion! She is now fully healed! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Almighty skill Rakukaja on Ririka Kawase! AS: Ririka Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Rakukaja. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Yua Ooshiro has readied for combat as Gretchen! She is now fully healed! Ready for 4 opponents! AS: Miho Ijuuin has readied for combat as Faust! She is now fully healed! Ready for 4 opponents!
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"I know there's demons here," Umie says as Shinjiro gets his weapon, though her voice doesn't display any aggression, performative or otherwise. She smirks up at him, sensing that it comes from a good place. "This *is* my home turf, after all, Aragaki-kun." And yet, this is something completely new to her.
Lots of things have been. "And of course I'm coming. One person going in by their lonesome is reckless, but if there's two, then it's a strategic advance." (Do not listen to Umie, she's a Chariot Social Link.)
They might as well be on the surface of the moon when they enter. Umie grabs her phone and holds it aloft, though it's more for Shinjiro to know where she is. "Don't walk too fast, okay? You have longer legs than I do." At least Umie remembered to charge her phone before she left.
".... A Navigator? I thought Yamagishi-san was the only one..." Umie looks up, as if the source of the voice was somewhere above. "I can't answer back. Aragaki-kun, let's keep by each other and follow that voice, but first..." A blue light pools underneath the young woman's feet, the ghastly grey presence of the Badb appearing above her.
A warrior needs his shield, after all, and Shinjiro gets one of a sort, if the ghostly half bubble that appears in front of him is of any indication. "Might come in handy."
".... As for earlier, Shinjiro," Umie starts, in that stiff moment where they have nothing to do but follow, "... It was just a weird thing I read, once." She makes a dismissive sound. "But, thinking back... no, it's just stupid. It's got nothing to do with what we were... talking about, earlier." The Joker Killer? Time of 'Joka'? That was a stretch, now that she's far more invested in finding out if Shinjiro's friends are okay. ".... We're getting close."
AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Recovery skill Shroud on Shinjiro Aragaki! AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended. AS: Take! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 54 Recovery healing from Umie Akabane's Shroud. AS: Eclipse added!
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Already on edge from, well, everything, Suzume snaps toward Tyler without thinking, "If you don't behave you're going to get a *real personal* contact with the other side." And then immediately regrets it. It's creepy enough in here without her saying stuff like that. (Fortunately, Tyler is also probably the only person here who will take her words positively.)
Suzume was not going to spend 3000 yens on a bunch of cards, because she spent a lot of her spare money recently on other things. But she might have asked about a *specific* card or two... having been inducted into the secrets of Skill Cards, something she did not know about last time she visited.
Having the light in her hand helps Suzume. She's really going to have to get a flashlight someday; now there's two times she wished she has one. Though it's not lot like she brought her Gekkoukan infiltration kit to the TV station.
She follows Hitomi's gaze up toward the fluorescent tubes. Suzume had thought they went *out*. Seeing them lit but not illuminating really is bizarre. "...yeah," Suzume agrees, before looking back toward the group. She focuses on Fuuka specifically, because Suzume assumes she is not working at 100% yet: "Stick behind me," she volunteers, before -
Well, Fuuka still has her Evoker. Suzume startles to see it, and startles again when Fuuka fires it - "Here??" she hisses, though the fact that it actually *works* surprises her enough that she shuts up and doesn't object. Instead, she reaches into the depths of her backpack.
She did not bring her tonfa. They're a little hard to stash. But she did bring her Evoker, bundled up in her gym shirt, because if someone peeked in her backpack having a gym shirt is a lot less suspicious than having a gun-shaped object and she figures nobody wants to touch dirty gym clothes. (It's actually not - she pulled it out of her clean laundry when she was packing - but don't tell.)
Suzume unrolls the gym shirt, pulls out her Evoker, and holds it in her hand. She feels a little better now. "It gets worse," she says to Fuuka. "In Sumaru, they have *demons* instead of Shadows. Like in Mementos," she clarifies, somewhat inaccurately, for Hitomi, because she knows she's been there. "So, uh... yeah."
They *should* proceed carefully. And Hitomi's right, she doesn't want to stay here.
"I don't know where anything is in here," Suzume admits. "But if we want to go - I think the band went that way - " She points at one of the doors.
Everybody. I need your help. There's no time to explain, just follow the music.
Suzume startles again. She points the Evoker, realizes it does no good to point it elsewhere, points it at herself instead, and then lowers it without firing. "*Kawase*?" she asks thin air. "When did you - *how* did you - never mind!" She'll ask later.
"Music! C'mon," Suzume says, picking up the pace. She'd never find her way in here without being guided, but she can follow a trail like nobody's business... she's better with vision, but sound is a good cue too.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro's having trouble feeling a path forward *clearly*, even if he's making headway, up until he hears that awkward message to him and Umie and a song.
There it is. A melody... it must be Ririka's. It seems she Awakened, and right on time, because there's danger in the air.
"I hear it," he tells Umie. He pushes forward towards the song, staying slow enough she can follow. "Let's hope our strategic advance doesn't get someone killed."
Though, the barrier gets an appreciative sound from him, as he reaches the dressing room. "We'll probably have to react fast, so... we'll talk about the Joker Killer later, alright? For now, let's get to work."
He takes the sign, smashes the door open, and waves the NO ENTRY sign. "Kawase! Get back!" He doesn't know her well, but they met yesterday, and he's clearly a Persona user as he grabs his Evoker with one hand, preparing his supernatural strength.
And then moves to swing it at the nearest threat, the one with the blade, who just happens to be Miyu! The sign comes down hard, bolstered by Shinjiro's *sheer* Persona-empowered strength. "Get out of here!", he tells the people who will certainly not listen.
Yukari Takeba has arrived from Historia: The White Chronicle.
AS: Weapon! Shinjiro Aragaki has used the Strike skill Brutal Strike on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Shinjiro Aragaki's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
It's a light that's hers, or at least more or less hers, and Hitomi clings to it. It also helps that she didn't have anything else with her to hold onto. Right? Well, there are other weapons.
Hitomi can feel her heart speeding up. She swallows dryly. The worst part is that the feeling isn't unfamiliar. Sure, it's approximate, but... Something's hiding from them, Fuuka reports. "Can they even do that?" Hitomi asks Fuuka, lips pursing, then grimacing, then: "Yeah. Alright." She takes a deep breath in through her teeth.
"Don't be so eager," she answers Tyler darkly.
But then -- Suzume hears it a little before she does. "Huh? Uh, oh fuck I sound like an idiot," Hitomi gabbles, before immediately falling in. "-- I can hear it," she says afterwards, pocketing her phone as they seem to be moving enough through the bloody and tenebrious darkness to at least have *some idea of where they are*.
Especially when...
"Tyche!" Hitomi says with a blue limned gleam around her body as that statuary form arises above them, hovering like an unannounced guest on the tour. "Look favorably upon our sacrifices," Hitomi concludes, with a bow of her head, and Tyche's reaction seems to be a subtle... feeling that washes over Hitomi, Suzume, Tyler, Fuuka and Koh.
"... I'm just... being dramatic, I don't think this is really a sacrifice," Hitomi says after a couple of paces, in defense, but then they're moving, faster, towards those studio doors.
When Hitomi sees the presence of others -- the presence of *Shadows*, or of people, or of something in between both, to say nothing of the Man with the Blood on his Hands, Shinji Beanie-kun in the *flesh* -- she giggles. It's a nervous little thing. But at least she does not flinch or run.
AS: Persona! Hitomi Mandai has used the Almighty skill Revolution on Suzume Fukura, Tyler Gould, Fuuka Yamagishi, and Koh Katsuhiro! AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Almighty damage from Hitomi Mandai's Revolution. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Suzume Fukura takes 0 Almighty damage from Hitomi Mandai's Revolution. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Counter Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 90 Strike damage from Shinjiro Aragaki's Brutal Strike. AS: COUNTER! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 41 Strike damage in return for his attack!
<Pose Tracker> Koh Katsuhiro has posed.
"What the hell, of course you'd like this." Koh groans at Tyler's words. Despite attempt at levity the brown-haired boy seems distinctly unnerved.
But: sound and feel.
Ririka's call vibrates across Koh's internal wavelength in a way he's well suited to understanding. That she's able to do it doesn't give him pause yet, there's more pressing things to worry about.
Like demons, Suzume says. "Yeah. Let's go."
And off he goes, taking off at a steady clip. A glance is cast back in the dark toward the only recently recovered Fuuka, but he takes Suzume's word for her safety.
To Hitomi's clarification of a not-imminent martyrdom he only manages a short, "Hope not!"
And then he's barging through the door so helpfully smashed open by the big sign Shinjiro is wielding. "Hey, Kawase-san!" He calls, Evoker in hand. He didn't bring the big knife, but he did bring the even worse thing to get caught with.
When he pulls the trigger the floating robe behind him spews a mist of wine red madness across the dressing room.
AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Hitomi Mandai's Revolution. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Persona! Koh Katsuhiro has used the Earth skill Bacchanaiia: Madness on Yua Ooshiro and Miho Ijuuin! AS: Koh Katsuhiro's turn has ended. AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Earth damage from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Madness. AS: Charm and Rage added! AS: Mind Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Nerve Up! Yua Ooshiro's SP +8! AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Earth damage from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Madness. Resist! AS: Charm, Rage, and Sick added!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
"Okay... Thank you." Fuuka replies, as Suzume suggests for her to stick behind her. She returns Koh's glance back with a nod. But first, she calls upon her Persona. Lucia stares into the darkness - and something notices her. A smothering fuzziness surrounds her, to drown out her eyes and ears. Fuuka's breath is caught in her throat for a moment as she's struck by an immediate sense of isolation and loneliness.
...It's alright. Stay calm. Everyone's here. Everyone's... here.
She immediately gravitates closer to where she remembered everyone being, sticking closer to Suzume. This helps her get her thoughts in order a little. The moment she tried to get a closer look, something moved on her to stop it. Can that be a coincidence...? No, it has to be -
"Something... pushed back." Fuuka says. She nods toward Hitomi. "Yes... it must be. There's something doing this."
They're lost, trapped in the dark, her senses dulled... And Suzume explains that there areare demons here In Sumaru, instead of Shadows...
"Do you... think it could be one of those demons doing this?" Fuuka asks. She follows along. It feels strange, now, walking in darkness... In Tartarus, at least, she knew where she was going - could find her way around. Here... Here, she feels lost and vulnerable. Cut off from everything - and yet, something reaches her. A voice. For a second, a part of her fears that it may be the one who did this - but that fear fades a moment later.
'Kawase-san?' Fuuka questions in reply. Though the rest of her senses are dulled, sound pierces the veil, reaching her ears. A beautiful, melodic piano tune... She knows, intrinsically, that she can trust it - that this isn't further trickery. 'Is this your power...? It's incredible.'
"...We can trust her." Fuuka says aloud.
They follow the music back to the dressing room - and there is Ririka, shielding her friend, with her Persona, the man made of stone with a golden lyre... and two masked, armored figures. Fuuka gasps, taking a step back and clasping her hands over her mouth.
"Who are you? Are you the ones doing this...?" Fuuka asks. Are they the source of this unnatural darkness? The streaks on the walls? The cloud in her eyes?
If Ririka was desperate enough to call upon her Persona, then this must be a dangerous situation...
Hitomi calls upon her Persona, and a subtle feeling washes over Fuuka courtesy of Tyche. She feels just a little bit more courageous.
Fuuka readies her Evoker again.
"Lucia, please protect us..." Fuuka murmurs. For the second time tonight she fires and Lucia appears, enveloping Fuuka in her protective globe. She looks upon everyone, and spreads her arms out. A soothing wave ushers forth - settling on herself, Koh, and Ririka - though Umie find it drawn toward her, too. Should this come to violence - well, further violence - it will soothe any injuries they may take.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Recovery skill Healing Wave on Fuuka Yamagishi, Koh Katsuhiro, Ririka Kawase, and Umie Akabane! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Healing Wave. AS: Regen added! <Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
"Are you trying to encourage me to be a delinquent, Suzume?" Tyler asks, turning his gaze in the girl's direction. "...because it's working. Just keep your promise."
Then to Koh, "Why wouldn't I? Do you think it's real blood?" Really, all he needs now is some bats to fly out of a janitor's closet or something, he's even reaching out to try and *touch* it...
No, Tyler isn't particularly inclined to just *leave*. He'd much rather go to towards the source of the gloom and revel in it. They could have a nice seance over some coffee -- black, of course. Just like his...
Then Ririka's... voice? Interrupts his thoughts.
Wait. She's... she wasn't a ghost all this time, right?
"You don't have to explain. I'm coming. Just keep playing." he speaks outloud. If people think he's crazy? ...well, wouldn't be the first time.
Shouldn't that be 'we'? Probably. Working as part of a team is still new to him. He doesn't even wait for the rest of the crew, just one foot in front of the other, a walk that quickly turns into a run to help Suzume take the lead. Hand darting into the pocket of that trenchcoat to grasp the handle of his Evoker. Whatever kind of help Ririka needs, he suspects it's probably going to be more up Houdini's alley than his own.
... that is, until his ears catch Suzume's warning about *demons*, not Shadows. It literally stops him in his tracks, but only for a moment. "I'm... *really* glad I was here today." he decides, before resuming said run. Sorry, Hitomi, he's pretty darn eager.
Tyche's blessing is a refreshing wave indeed, and that dark line offered with it? Even the backtracking after earns his approval. "It's still early, we might find one yet."
He's also stating different words. Words that have *meaning*.
If anyone happens to know Latin, that is.
When they *get* to the room, though? Eyes scan quickly. Ririka and Emi are noted. Ririka's... *Persona?* Or is it Emi's? There's a moment of confusion but either one would be an ally. Shinjiro's presence, "Benny, you're here." Yes, he said his name was Agaraki... but syllables! Less is better. Umie isn't a known quantity. Badb, however, was on their side during the battle to save Fuuka. Which leaves...
"It's time for an exorcism..." he declares, drawing and raising the Evoker in the same movement, eyes focusing that unblinking stare on Miyu. Then the trigger is pulled. "Persona."
How does one exorcise demons? Well, there's numerous ways depending on what one believes. He could go on for ages on the topic. BUT. None of those methods involved an Evoker, and that just feels like the right move. As does bringing the cold, which is why those shards of ice start escaping Houdini's chains, making their way violently towards his chosen (and hopefully he didn't choose wrong and hit an unknown ally! We're gonna blame demons on that, too.) opponent.
AS: Take! Tyler Gould takes 0 Almighty damage from Hitomi Mandai's Revolution. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Persona! Tyler Gould has used the Water skill Bufu on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Tyler Gould's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Gretchen's arms unfurl, as that masked woman enters the scene; Yumi stumbles into her, grasping at her arms. "I -- can't," she chokes out, before another rakish cough, flecks of blood splattering across Miyu's kevlar.
Luckily, Miyu understands enough of her plight to know what she needs, her skin beneath her veils ashen and clammy. She clutches herself to Miyu, staying dutifully still as she injects her with more of that medicine, though her grip tightens as the needle slips in. "Ahh--!!" She cries, pained, but at least breathes easier as it sinks into her veins, hugging herself to the other woman for a moment before she finds the strength to straighten up again.
"There are girls, back there," she says, more of herself, looking to the starlet's exclusive little dressing room. "Just girls... I want to go easy on them. Oh, babes in the woods... why are there children, here? Who would do such a thing...?" Her eyes are obscured, but for that red flame and gold glow, but the tears are audible in her voice.
She takes her place in front of Gretchen, again, as her Persona clasps her hands to trap her in the steel bars which extend from her arms. "I see him," she reports, to Miyu, bowing her head. "I am still working... he'll regret it. He'll regret it. Just give me a little longer..."
With the work she's doing out there, it would be almost impossible to make one's way through to find the dressing room... if not for Ririka's song, echoing out from the room which Yumi has already decided to spare. What's back there, in the end, was never just a girl.
And sparing the children isn't so easy, when teenagers bear Persona of their own.
If Tyler does touch the blood on the walls, he'll find his fingers are clean -- this blood, at least, is an illusion.
What Suzume will find, when she barrels into the dressing room, are cordless curling irons set into charging ports on one of the mirrored stations of the dressing room. They're not QUITE tonfa -- definitely not sturdy enough to last for more than one fight -- but there's a familiar style of grip-followed-by-a-short-stick which might make them decent analogues. They're not the only makeshift weapons one can come up with, in the dressing room -- up to and including picking up a light on a pole.
What else is here is a bride in a dozen obscuring black veils, her wedding dress marred by the presence of a Kevlar vest... a loosened tourniquet still attached to one arm, and pin-pricks of red at that elbow. In the steel-bar arms of her Persona, a giant woman clad in white and adorned with dozens of shining jewels, she is caged -- and she is the source of all this disruption.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ER7tTyTpQA Ego Likeness - Seance
Yumi looks up, red flames flecking off of that glowing gold eye, light which leaks through her half-dozen veils. "How?" She issues, her voice tight. "How did you find us?! I did not allow it!" And in her anger, Fuuka finds her answer, indirect though it is; she is the one who did this, to them. "You -- you --!!"
She casts her vision back, to the room she'd once spared, as she takes Ririka's existence into herself just the same as everything else. "WHO ARE YOU?!" She screeches, in demand, as she understands for a moment how it feels to have her strengths and her weaknesses.
Water pours out, over Yumi and Miyu, drowning each of them like a babe to the bowl -- though they come out of it stronger, rather than weaker. But Yumi's been Charmed, and for a moment, she's not entirely sure whether the men running in aren't just younger copies of the men she's used to bowing her head to, day to day. And so, Koh and Shinjiro are also drowned, for a moment -- and come out stronger for it.
(Sorry, Tyler. There just aren't that many foreigners in a conspiracy which has this many nationalists in it.)
"You," she focuses her gaze on Fuuka, now, behind Gretchen's bars. "A globe, a prison, a fishbowl, a trap -- I see it. I see you! I see you!" She repeats, again, as she drink
AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Ririka Kawase! AS: Charm results in party damage! Yua Ooshiro takes 60 damage! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Rousing Wave on Miho Ijuuin, Yua Ooshiro, Koh Katsuhiro, and Shinjiro Aragaki! AS: Charm results in party damage! Yua Ooshiro takes 60 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"You," she focuses her gaze on Fuuka, now, behind Gretchen's bars. "A globe, a prison, a fishbowl, a trap -- I see it. I see you! I see you!" She repeats, again, as she drinks too deeply, to feel the weaknesses Fuuka feels against her own skin. She has the sense her vulnerabilities are being probed, just the same -- and it's not a comforting feeling.
"You, you... you! You came to stop us?! We can't stop, yet! Crimes yet unwritten on the walls! Fine -- this, this, and this! I'll take you all on--!!" Jewels shimmer into existence above Koh and Umie, raining down on them in a dozen solid impacts.
AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Rousing Wave. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Sight Weakness on Fuuka Yamagishi! AS: Charm results in party damage! Yua Ooshiro takes 60 damage! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Earth skill Mamagna on Koh Katsuhiro and Umie Akabane! AS: Charm results in party damage! Yua Ooshiro takes 60 damage! AS: Yua Ooshiro: Loses 10 SP from Sick! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Sight Weakness. AS: Panic added! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Weakness Scan! Fuuka Yamagishi is weak against Dark! AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 49 Water damage from Tyler Gould's Bufu. AS: COUNTER! Tyler Gould takes 16 Water damage in return for his attack! Resist! AS: Take! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Rousing Wave. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Rousing Wave. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Shift! Ririka Kawase can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 48 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. AS: Bind added!
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
The needle does its work. "Girls," Miyu repeats thoughtfully. "...We will do what we can." A pause. "I do not know why they are here, nor why they are in a position to stop us. But we will complete our mission."
Miyu hears; see him.
Different him.
The nearest threat is indeed Miyu, the one with the sword. She draws it in an instant, as soon as she sees trouble. Shinjiro, in this case, is trouble. He approaches with the sign, and she doesn't try to parry--it's a sign with muscle behind it. So instead of blocking that way, she steps into the blow, catching the sign on her armor--and reaching out to kick Shinjiro back on the end of the swing, aiming to use his momentum to send him stumbling back the other direction.
There are others coming through the door.
"You are no priest," Miyu counters Tyler in English, her voice distorted by the mask.
But her sword comes back out--she takes some of the ice, but launches some back with incredible athleticism, catching it in the air and hurling the shard straight for Tyler.
Does it help? Not really. But it's probably quite intimidating.
"Yumi," she says. "...Take what time you need."
She feels it. She feels the anger that comes of Koh's Persona. And...
Well. She may be disoriented (Charmed), but she knows her priority. Miyu steps in front of Yumi. "Hmph."
She calls forth, "FAUST!" And a masculine figure in a plague mask and attire appears, holding forth a book. Light surges from her feet--as red mist clouds all around her.
It moves that way from there. Hr Persona pulls a knife and spectral slashes move from the air towards the other combatants coming through the door--
But Tyler for his exorcism comments gets incredible bladework as Miyu advances--and then Shinjiro gets a slash across his torso with a real sword.
AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Dance of Bravery on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Charm results in party damage! Miho Ijuuin takes 60 damage! AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Miho Ijuuin's Dance of Bravery. AS: Atk_Up and Crt_Up added! AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Sabre Advance on Tyler Gould! 2 Hits! AS: Charm results in party damage! Miho Ijuuin takes 60 damage! AS: Weapon! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Sabre Aggression on Shinjiro Aragaki! 2 Hits! AS: Charm results in party damage! Miho Ijuuin takes 60 damage! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Gale Slash on Koh Katsuhiro, Hitomi Mandai, Suzume Fukura, and Umie Akabane! AS: Charm results in party damage! Miho Ijuuin takes 60 damage! AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended. AS: Block Best! Suzume Fukura takes 91 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Block Best! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 44 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Aggression. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Block Neutral! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 50 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Aggression. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Rousing Wave. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Block Worst! Hitomi Mandai takes 73 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. AS: Block Neutral! Koh Katsuhiro takes 23 Earth damage from Yua Ooshiro's Mamagna. Resist! AS: Avoid Worst! Koh Katsuhiro takes 105 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. AS: Avoid Best! Tyler Gould takes 45 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Advance. AS: Avoid Neutral! Tyler Gould takes 81 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Sabre Advance. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Full Analysis. AS: Yua Ooshiro's Strength Scan! Ririka Kawase resists Earth! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Weakness Scan! Ririka Kawase is weak against Elec! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Support Scan! Ririka Kawase has passive skills Spotlight, Supporter, Team Player, and Tough Love!
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"A Navigator?" Ririka asks telepathically to Umie. "I'm just... kind of improvising here... But Yamagishi-chan is here, too. Oh, and hello again, Aragaki-san. Sorry, I didn't recognize you from before." She only Awakeend literally moments ago. "Yamagishi-san is here too, but the woman--she's doing something. I'm trying to guide her, too." She does sigh a bit as Umie summons Badb for a shiled. So she had guessed right.
Suzume is surprised, and asks the natural question. 'Kawase?' Somehow, for being transmitted telepathically, her voice sounds a bit sheepish still. "It's me," she confirms. "And... I had that Evoker in my backpack still." That answers 'how', at least. "But the woman doing this-- no, wait-- I think there's two of them, they're in the Dressing Room. Emi's in here with me I... I don't think I can take them both on by myself."
Shinjiro tells her to get back. "They're in the main room," she says quickly. "We're in this smaller changing room--" There's some mumbling as she tries to sort through her senses. "... she said we were locked in..." she mumbles, telepathically... she might be a bit distracted trying to navigate everyone here She's new at this.
Hitomi summons Tyche, a moment that draws her attention, just like it had for Badb. "I thought it was a cool line..." she offers quietly. "Just be ready, I don't know if that woman can detect what I'm doing."
Ririka isn't immediately visible when Koh--or the others--burst into the room. It's just Yumi and Miyu. But there's a smaller room with a star on the door, and Ririka's resonance sings out from there. "You made it," she says with a sigh of relief.
'Yes, Yamagishi-san,' Ririka replies to Fuuka. 'It's me.' Incredible. 'I guess it is... Um... thanks. There's this woman, I think she's doing something-- but it's not happening here so I'll try to help you.'
She's not quite in sight, but her signature is so clearly coming from that room, it's not hard at all to sense her--especially not for a fellow Navigator. A soothing wave of magic comes forth, and Ririka lets out a tiny sigh of relief. Everyone's coming together... 'Thank you, Yamagishi-san.'
"Thank you, Tyler-kun," she responds telepathically. "But don't leave everyone else behind. I'm sending the music to them, it might be dangerous if you come alone." But thankfully he isn't alone--everyone's here now. Well, everyone she could find, at least. She'll just have to hope that's enough.
But Yumi's attention is on her now. And Ririka is looking at Yumi through the door, staring defiantly. Her hands lift, and the holographic keyboard vanishes, and Ririka lets out a relieved sigh.
"Emi," she says firmly, "Stay behind me."
Emi just nods as Ririka reaches out to pick up a prop sword. It's a Katana, and not meant for fighting, but... it only has to last one fight.
'WHO ARE YOU?!'
She can feel the scrutiny, the intense probing, but she grits her teeth through it. She can also feel Fuuka nearby, and through her she can get a better impression of the room. She knows where Yumi is now--
"Attack her, Amphion." And so she lifts her Evoker to her head and fires again. Amphion vanishes from the room--and outside, in the main area, in glass and flame Amphion reemerges. He strums his lyre, holographic strings appearing for the briefest of moments as they're touched. A large stone appears and crashes down down at Yumi.
And now that she's not playing, not distracted, she can see that the door is not, in fact, locked. She reaches, pulls, and finally steps out into the open, Emi clinging tightly behind her.
"Me?" She puts on a cocky grin. "I'm the leader of the band!" What band?? Well, they'll figure it out. Or they won't. It's not her problem. "And whatever it is you're after, we won't let you get away with it." (Sadly they already did get some of what they wanted, but they can at least keep it from getting worse, hopefully.)
Though Miho might well recognize her, even though her demeanor--and outfit--are totally different from the first time they met.
She lifts her Evoker and fires. Shattering glass and blue flame swirl as she summons Amphion in front of her this time, another bulwark between Yumi and Emi. He forms of stone and with a golden lyre. "Amphion!" she shouts. "Let's help everyone get charged up again!"
Amphion strums his lyre, holographic strings springing into existence for the briefest moments when they're touched, sending out energizing waves of sound to everyone confronting Yumi.
AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Earth skill Magnara on Yua Ooshiro! AS: You still have 0 regular actions and 1 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Recovery skill Relaxing Wave on Ririka Kawase, Koh Katsuhiro, Umie Akabane, and Fuuka Yamagishi! AS: Ririka Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
When Fuuka asks a question, Suzume has to admit, "I don't know much about demons. Maybe?" The only time she saw them, they were in Mementos, and Suzume isn't even experienced enough to really internalize how Mementos Shadows differ from demons even if they are the same in some ways.
"Just so you know, I hit harder than she does," Suzume replies to Tyler. She remembers when Yukari just decked him, and Suzume is probably more experienced at scuffling; even if Yukari has more experience fighting Shadows, it's not like she punches them. (Later, she is going to think: 'oh god, did he think I was flirting with him?', which was not her intention at all. But that's for later. She's too on edge to be worried about *that* at the moment.)
Two of them, in the dressing room. Suzume accepts this information from Ririka poorly. "You mean *people* are doing this? Not Shadows, but..." This changes some things. Not in a great way. She tenses, but her only actual response is, "OK."
But when they get to the changing room -
"Be right back," Suzume says, and disappears to the side of room while the others rush forward. For a moment, she is out of sight, though the clatter as she accidentally knocks over something proves she's still *there* as she elects to pick up something.
And a few moments after that, she acts.
A clattering humanoid figure rushes out of the darkness, a sudden silhouette in the poor lighting! Though, this one isn't shaped all that much like Suzume... owing to the fact that it doesn't have a *head*, or anything below a few inches under the hip besides a single pole-like stand, until it reaches a square wheeled platform. It's a dressmaker's dummy, in here probably used for display or last-minute adjustments; Suzume has kicked it as hard as she can at Miho, to distract her and possibly absorb a reflexive strike.
If it's ignored, it eventually overbalances as it starts to slow down, tipping over with a clatter and crash. Suzume is some distance behind it, having used it for cover. She's got one of those curling rods; she isn't sure that it's going to survive more than a couple swings, but if a couple swings is all it needs... Plus, what are they going to do if she breaks it? Charge her for it? At a time like this??
Unfortunately it doesn't do much to stop the *spectral* swipes from the Persona. Suzume has to do that herself; she blocks with the curler, which manages to *sort* of hold it off for a moment until it skips past, striking her with the flat at an angle and sliding her back as she tries to absorb the impact.
But her other hand still has her Evoker, which she is pointing up at herself, jabbing it just behind her chin. "Get away from them!" she calls, squeezing, 'firing' with the sound of the breaking glass... "Come out!"
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Atalanta appears, a figure in short tunic and light armour, belt and leg guards and bracers, one of which has a bowgun attached; she has windblown blonde hair that almost seems to meld into the top mane-like 'ruff' of her lionskin cloak. She is also already raising her hands, preparing to summon something -
And she freezes.
Suzume can fight Shadows. Even human-shaped Shadows. She's fought demons (sort of) in Mementos; she's fought Emperor and Empress. But fighting a person, a human being? A scuffle is one thing, even a punch. But a Persona...
But she's been attacked. They've been attacked. If she freezes, she could be hurt; the others could be killed. Even Ririka, who's never done this before, is doing it - and she looks at Amphion, impressed despite herself. She can hear and she can fight.
What can she do? Just fight. So she'd better. Suzume breathes, then tries again: "ATALANTA!"
Atalanta unfreezes like a paused video recording, summoning swirling winds beneath Miho, whipping and tripping and blurring the eye! It doesn't last long, but then again, does it need to? Suzume uses the cover to regroup with Hitomi and Tyler, expecting that she's going to have to stand in front of them. She is less familiar with some of the others, except - "Beanie-san!" she calls. "Here to give me a hand again? You'd better not just be following us around!"
You can't leave SEES and then just follow SEES around, that's stupid.
AS: Persona! Suzume Fukura has used the Wind skill Garu on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Suzume Fukura's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
"Inaction can have the same effect," Umie retorts, quietly, as she follows behind Shinjiro. "It's just easier to shrug off the consequences."
Hearing Ririka respond, Umie laughs, looking towards Shinjiro. "She said she's improvising. She's ahead of the curve, though. Improvising's the name of the game." Maybe, Ririka's able to hear her in general. "You first, Aragaki-kun."
Following behind Shinjiro's as-signed advance, the 5'1" young woman dressed in a white windbreaker, orange shirt, and shorts, looks far less prepared, but no less willing to get involved, as she tries to scan the room.
Fuuka Umie recognizes, and appreciates, as she receives some support. "Thanks, Yamagishi-san!" Suzume's comments are for Shinjiro only, but Umie, nonetheless, jumps in. "It's fine. I dragged him in. Wouldn't be great for me to rush in by my lonesome, eh?" (Nevermind that would be something Umie would possibly do.)
"It's you guys, from the beach," Umie immediately hisses, pointing an accusatory finger at the two gathered. "Different feeling, but at least *one* of the same damn results! And what the hell are you even *on* about?! I thought you guys'd be too busy being 'their' dogs to pull shit like this. Or is that just not enough for you?!"
Umie, is that any way to greet someone that's answered those desperate little prayers you've made when you were little, to not be the 'only one'? Or did you just want to be directly mad at someone, finally, even if they aren't responsible for anything you're mad about?
Jewels and forceful slashes rain down on Umie, causing her to leap back to try to avoid as much of the flow. "If you're just going to answer in riddles, how about a taste of your own medicine?" Kou's attacks have primed them, and Umie takes full advantage, though she doesn't bring an Evoker to her head. "Badb!"
A red V shape screams into existence in front of the gesturing figure in grey and dark red, like a siren alerting everyone to approaching danger.
AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Relaxing Wave. AS: Vigor added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Avoid Neutral! Umie Akabane takes 87 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Gale Slash. AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 40 Earth damage from Ririka Kawase's Magnara. Resist! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Final Warning on Miho Ijuuin and Yua Ooshiro! AS: Umie Akabane: Gains 51 HP from Regen! Gains 10 SP from Vigor! Bind removed! AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended. AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 40 Wind damage from Suzume Fukura's Garu.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"Improvising it is, then..."
Miyu kicks Shinjiro, causing him to stumble back as she desires, but even so...
He takes that defensive boost from Yumi. He blinks twice. Okay? Thanks, charm.
But now Miyu is coming in with her real sword, slashing at Shinjir twice. The first slash is blocked better than the latter, but both send him twirling back even as he tries to guard with the sign, grunting from pain and losing the footing war.
"What do you even want?!"
He does not attack, instead shakily pulling that Evoker up to his temple. He takes a breath...
"Castor!"
And fires, a blue burst of energy releasing the impaled hobby-horse riding skeleton, who immediately rides around Shinjiro. An aura of wild, feral red rips out of him, as he shakily steps forward, boosting in strength, though his defense is already boosted... he takes a breath.
And then quirks a look at Suzume. "It's just a coincidence..." Not that he wouldn't actually follow them around to help if he thought he needed to, but this was definitely a 'I smell disaster' situation.
AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 58 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Final Warning. AS: COUNTER! Umie Akabane takes 22 Dark damage in return for her attack! Resist! AS: Persona! Shinjiro Aragaki has used the Almighty skill Bloody Charge on Shinjiro Aragaki! AS: Shinjiro Aragaki's turn has ended. AS: Take! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 0 Almighty damage from Shinjiro Aragaki's Bloody Charge. AS: Atk_Up, Crt_Up, and Def_Up added!
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
"That's weird," Hitomi answers Tyler. "You're being weird." She sounds sullen about it, somehow.
("... thanks," she answers Ririka, a few moments later. It's less sullen.)
BUT:
The sullenness does not last. They've penetrated through to the room, and whatever they may think of the strange people - one of who speaks English, and who is calling on something else, calling on FAUST -- the long-snouted humanoid face rising and a sudden slash against her recoiling body. "Kyah!!"
Once the pain has passed - which does not, at least, seem to have cut her meat from her bones in a huge flensing arc - Hitomi has staggered back a pace, and boggles for a moment at the rolling dummy that appeared. Her head turns towards Suzume. Her eyes and her face tell a tale her lips do not.
That tale is, in the words of a wise* man: 'FOR REAL!?'
Back then, as Suzume speaks to Beanie-san. Hitomi's head swivels for a moment. She stares, eyes widening -- then impulsively one hand comes up to press index and middle fingers to her lips and flick it forwards while -- yes, that was a wink. It might have simply vanished as he pulls up his --
Evoker? Hitomi's weirdly flirtatious moment disappears as she turns her head forwards. "C-- Come on, Tyche!!" The statue appears again, reaching with spreading-outwards arms towards the enemy -- Miho may understand the true meaning of this luminous manifestation when two screaming bursts of fire erupt on her location.
AS: Yua Ooshiro has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 4! +bjoin Yua Ooshiro to sign up! AS: Persona! Hitomi Mandai has used the Fire skill Double Agi on Miho Ijuuin! 2 Hits! AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended. AS: Fuuka Yamagishi has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 1 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Miho Ijuuin has cleared her buckets. AS: Miho Ijuuin has placed a new bucket with a capacity of 4! +bjoin Miho Ijuuin to sign up! AS: Suzume Fukura has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 1 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Shinjiro Aragaki has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 2 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Ririka Kawase has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 2 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Koh Katsuhiro has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 3 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Avoid Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 14 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Double Agi. Resist! AS: Haze added! AS: Hitomi Mandai gains 1 Limit from Schadenfreude! AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 21 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Double Agi. Resist! AS: Haze added! AS: Hitomi Mandai gains 1 Limit from Schadenfreude! AS: Hitomi Mandai has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 3 out of 4 slots filled!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
A 'maybe' - Fuuka nods toward Suzume, though the demon theory is disproven as Ririka keeps them updated on the situation - how Emi is with her, but there's two women outside of her dressing room.
"People...?" Fuuka replies out loud - expressing similar shock. But after a moment, she's regathered herself enough.
'You're welcome - and, thank you.' Fuuka replies to Ririka. She can't see her, but in such close proximity, she can sense her, now - and sense she and Emi are alright. She breathes a sigh of relief.
Umie thanks her, and she nods.
"You're welcome. I'm, um... glad you're here. Both of you." She replies - meaning her and Shinjiro both. ...She doesn't know his name. She's hearing a lot go around and she's not sure which is which.
But there are still people here doing something, and the woman in the wedding dress has a Persona of her own. Where Lucia envelops Fuuka to protect her... Gretchen's reminds her of the bars of a cage. And her words confirm that she's the one responsible for the veil of darkness that obscured her senses. And - she turns her eyes upon her now.
Fuuka recoils back, as Yumi declares that she sees her - she can feel the unsettling sense of eyes upon her, staring through her. She feels like an open book - and Yumi can surely see the fear of Darkness, that clouds her vision and shuts her off from the world. For one who relies so much on seeing others as they are and connecting others, cutting that off is her greatest weakness.
"Crime...? Why? I don't understand... This is just a TV studio." Fuuka asks. They didn't come here to stop them - but they'll have to fight all the same.
Amphion emits energizing sound waves, and that helps Fuuka recover enough. She sends Ririka a grateful nod - and marvels at her confidence, as she proudly declares herself the leader of the band, that she won't let the masked women get away with whatever they're after.
Where does she find it...? It's amazing.
She's... hesitant to use her powers to harm another person. And so as Yumi stares at her, Fuuka tries to stare back.
"Who are you...?" She asks - as she tries to discern her aura from the darkness still shrouding this place, to try and get a better understanding of her.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi takes 60 damage from Panic! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended. AS: Umie Akabane has joined Yua Ooshiro's bucket! 4 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 55 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Final Warning. AS: Panic added! Charm removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Full Analysis. AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's Strength Scan! Yua Ooshiro resists Earth! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's Weakness Scan! Yua Ooshiro is weak against Light! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's Support Scan! Yua Ooshiro has passive skills Jamming, Mind Up, Nerve Up, Peerless Skill, and Skill Card Affinity!
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
"You can hit me when we're *not* trying to save them." Tyler replies to Suzume blandly. Is he encouraging her to hit him? Not exactly. But, it's not an abnormal response in his book. He accepts it like the blue of the morning sky, even if it promises to *hurt*.
To Himomi? "I'm weird." he answers matter-of-factly. Which. At least he *knows*?
How do you intimidate that which fears not death?
...it's easier than it looks. Mainly because Tyler knows he has a job to do, so while normally he'd walk forward when Death beckoned...
Instead he's turning to try and let the ice smash into his coat, instead. Now, we all see why he wears the coat.
It *does* get cold.
"Not a priest, no. My soul is far too dark for that..." he replies.
Of course, the words might end up ringing hollow depending on how the battle turns out! Dodging blades isn't a natural thing at all for the lanky goth, who presents a large, if narrow target. That doesn't mean he doesn't try, and for someone of his size and experience? He doesn't do bad.
That being said... he's definitely looking worse for the wear from the slashes. There's a reason he *normally* aims for the back row. He's the artillery, not anyone's natural shield, and speaking of...
"'...but now that I know
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
"...but now that I know my enemy, allow me to show you what really lies within."
Because the first attack? That was weaker on purpose. Just in case she wasn't the right one to attack. Better action than inaction when a... ally? Friend? Acquaintance? needs help, even if one needs to apologize for it later. A sword pointed in his direction gets no apology. It gets a 'gun' pointed at himself, instead. "Chill out." he tells Miyu, eyes narrowing as he pulls the trigger once again. "Houdini."
Once again, he opts for a frozen assault on his target. This time around, though, the ice that comes from the suspended escape artist Houdini is more powerful, more plentiful and more dangerous, showing that two can play at this particular game!
...damage dealing, that is. Actual swordsmanship? Not so much.
AS: Persona! Tyler Gould has used the Water skill Bufula on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Tyler Gould's turn has ended. AS: Block Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 89 Water damage from Tyler Gould's Bufula. Critical Hit! AS: Bind added! Haze removed! Explosion! 50 damage! AS: Tyler Gould gains 1 Limit from Schadenfreude!
<Pose Tracker> Koh Katsuhiro has posed.
Koh, when he's met with punishment for hosing the room down with bloody wine, raises a hand in vain attempt to ward away the flood of crimson mist sent in return. His skin prickles and burns, and he's in little position to avoid being turn into by the gale force that comes after.
It's only as he reorients that he focuses his attention on the things going on around him. He spots the familiar boy in the beanie, he'd seen him in Tartarus.
He doesn't know the two attackers. The fact that they appear to be other Persona users even gives him pause. He might have just been spewing sickness at whatever looked immediately terrifying and hostile.
But now he can make an informed decision to cause mayhem, helped by the surge of power that floods out in the wake of the sudden appearance of Ririka's persona, and then the musician herself.
"Yo, Kawase-san! Nice entrance!" He raises his Evoker again. "But let me fix everyone upZagreus!"
Less madness this time, more healing.
AS: Persona! Koh Katsuhiro has used the Recovery skill Media on Koh Katsuhiro, Umie Akabane, Fuuka Yamagishi, and Ririka Kawase! AS: Koh Katsuhiro's turn has ended. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 60 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 60 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 60 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Tyler Gould has joined Miho Ijuuin's bucket! 4 out of 4 slots filled! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 60 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
The mission... pounding in her veins, in her head, in her EYE.
"Miyu, protect me," Yumi -- now named thus by the other woman, a name to match to her obscured face -- beseeches her partner, as she clasps her hand together. "I'll finish my work for you, I promise. Our mission... I remember!"
Yumi understands, for a moment, what it is to be Ririka -- to be a girl grounded to the earth yet vulnerable to the rage of the sky, a performer who functions in a unit, a rising tide which lifts all boats. She breathes that earthiness, tastes the battery-acid aftertaste of licking the battery, hears Zeus roaring retribution in her ears; her fingers rub together, and there, in her cognition, is the porous and pockmarked feeling of sandstone which has stood for ten thousand years.
And Amphion comes to them, strumming his lyre. Gretchen lifts an arm to catch the stone on her steel bars, as Yumi turns to grasp herself to her skirts, hiding herself against her own Persona. (Is that really how it's supposed to go...?) "Foolish," she declares, as she turns back out -- and somehow, Ririka can hear her clear as day, despite the wall between them. "Foolish! You think you are the only one loved by the Earth our mother?! Sybil, you know not your sight! Yours to know and to describe! Mock me not, and speak 'Analysis'!" She's... telling her how to use her powers? Is that really what the bad guy is supposed to do?!
"But all along, you were...!" Yumi shakes her head, grasping it with her free hand. She straightens, and takes something which looks like a bullet from one of the pouches on her armour. "Load Zio Cartridge!" She reports, as she slips it into one of the chambers of her revolver-Evoker, pressing it into her veils, where her left eye is flaking those flames. As she fires, lightning reflects in the jewels adorning Gretchen's form, and she lifts a hand to gesture artfully with it. Electricity arcs into Amphion -- hitting the precise weakness she'd divined.
Umie, though, calls her a dog -- and Yumi gestures out, angrily, yelling back to her as she remembers insult after careless mainland insult. "I AM NO HOUND! How dare you?! How dare you! You know nothing, you are nothing, disappear! DROWN IN DARK WATERS!"
Gretchen, at least, is quick enough to curl her arms around Yumi, to protect her from Badb's warning. She shrieks, clutching herself to her own Persona's skirts again, in a gesture which feels unsettling to see; if your Persona is your very self, what does it mean to clutch to it so, as if it stood apart? Gretchen follows through with her wishes, at least, as a drowning wave rolls out to consume Umie.
(Was it something she said...?)
Yumi feels a stab of regret as she takes Fuuka into herself, and feels for herself the clutch of anxiety about her chest, all cold ice and horror at that feeling of isolation. Fuuka, at least, understands the lesson she's imparted already, asking the operative question.
Who is she?
"I am Yumi," she replies, and Fuuka knows at once that it is another veil -- though one which isn't entirely a lie. "Mine is to be 'you and me.'" These three words, she says in really quite good English, and the sounds are at least passingly similar to the name. She is a dangerous opponent, a Navigator of a different kind to Fuuka... though one who possesses powers similar to her, regardless. Is she truly that powerful...? She fears the light, a God-fearing woman, and in turn embraces the darkness of her dungeon; she is vulnerable to status effects, but draws strength from her weakness, just the same.
A darkness she extends to Fuuka, as she says: "Forgive me, Sybil. Ever have I been a stain upon you and a plague upon your house." Gretchen gestures, and a cage of darkness forms around Lucia, collapsing in with all the wretchedness of her curse.
Koh heals those around him, and she looks to him, in turn. "A cornucopia," she remark
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
Koh heals those around him, and she looks to him, in turn. "A cornucopia," she remarks, approvingly. "I would dance for you, my friend, yet I must endure more." She's still Charmed...
She looks to Tyler, then. "'What lies within you?' She asks, her head canting to the side. "You -- I see you!" And her Analysis settles on him, just the same.
"Miyu, I have almost finished," she calls, to her partner. "Make ready!"
AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Exploit! Yua Ooshiro can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Shift! Miho Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round! AS: Yua Ooshiro spends Limit on Break! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Elec skill Zio on Ririka Kawase! AS: Yua Ooshiro takes 60 damage from Panic! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Water skill Bruising Wave on Umie Akabane and Koh Katsuhiro! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Dark skill Chthonic Cage on Fuuka Yamagishi! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Tyler Gould! AS: Persona! Yua Ooshiro has used the Recovery skill Wide Shroud on Miho Ijuuin and Yua Ooshiro! AS: Yua Ooshiro: Loses 10 SP from Sick! Break removed! AS: Yua Ooshiro's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack! AS: Take! Miho Ijuuin takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Wide Shroud. AS: Eclipse added! AS: Break! Miho Ijuuin can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Tyler Gould takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ooshiro's Full Analysis. AS: Yua Ooshiro's Strength Scan! Tyler Gould resists Water! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Weakness Scan! Tyler Gould is weak against Strike! AS: Yua Ooshiro's Support Scan! Tyler Gould has passive skills Mind Shield, Schadenfreude, and Water Boost! AS: Break! Tyler Gould can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 96 Dark damage from Yua Ooshiro's Chthonic Cage. Weak! AS: Bind and Poison added! AS: Break! Fuuka Yamagishi can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 84 Water damage from Yua Ooshiro's Bruising Wave. AS: Break! Umie Akabane can take another Weak action this round! AS: Block Worst! Ririka Kawase takes 93 Elec damage from Yua Ooshiro's Zio. Critical Hit! Weak! AS: Paralyze added! AS: Break! Ririka Kawase can take another Weak action this round! AS: Ririka Kawase spends Limit on Shift! Fuuka Yamagishi can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
A shroud of darkness settles on Miyu and Yumi, as she calls to her -- obscuring protection which might, in turn, look familiar to other people here...
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miyu does recognize Ririka. She'll be sure not to aim for her hands. She can be nice that way.
Suzume kicks the doll at Miho, and Miho reaches out with a powerful arm to batter it away from hersself. It does spare Suzume an attack on the way in, though, doing exactly the job it was meant to do. But she is busy with Shinjiro for a few moments longer, slash slash--
"That is not your business, boy." What do they want? Apparently she is not saying.
Atalanta's power summons swirling winds, and Miho steps into one--and is launched to the side, despite her defenses. "Gah--"
This briefly leaves Yumi vulnrable, as Shinjiro's Persona Castor charges forth. Miyu sees that.
She also hacks back at Umie, sending some of that darkness right back at her with the power of her Persona.
She then pauses, her mask obscuring her expression but her attention fully on Tyler as he speaks of his dark soul. "...Yumi," she says. "Tell me the nature of this boy. Is it true that his soul is stained?"
Chill out, he says in English, and Miho frowns. "Puns? Really?" Her English is perfect, though slightly muffled due tot he mask. Perhaps some of the damage comes from her disappointment at the pun--perhaps it's just the ice that hammers into her side and knocks her back again. "Gah--"
Umie calls them dogs, and Yumi already has the answer for thta. "The fact that we're on opposite sides is no call for such rudeness," Miyu says, sounding disappointed in Umie's manners. She considers--
But then there is a moment, a spark, a dark thing like resonance as Umie and Miho's heartbeats synchronize. "Ahhh," she says. "I am no Seer, but I see you."
But Yumi has almost finished. "Then I will cover you for this last moment," Miyu answers, and draws herself up to her full height.
Faust reappears, and a wave of blue flame precedes a terrible shockwave of slashing power. The flames are indiscriminate, but the toxic shockwave is only for Tyler, for Hitomi, for Shinjiro, and for Suzume.
AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! Charm removed from Miho Ijuuin! AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! Rage removed from Miho Ijuuin! AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Salve! removed from Miho Ijuuin! AS: Miho Ijuuin spends Limit on Reach! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Fire skill Mafrei on Tyler Gould, Hitomi Mandai, Shinjiro Aragaki, Suzume Fukura, Koh Katsuhiro, Fuuka Yamagishi, Umie Akabane, and Ririka Kawase! AS: Persona! Miho Ijuuin has used the Slash skill Blight on Tyler Gould, Hitomi Mandai, Shinjiro Aragaki, and Suzume Fukura! AS: Miho Ijuuin: Reach removed! AS: Miho Ijuuin's turn has ended. AS: Block Best! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 48 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. AS: Block Worst! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 127 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Block Best! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 93 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Avoid Best! Suzume Fukura takes 90 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. AS: Counter Best! Suzume Fukura takes 76 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. AS: COUNTER! Miho Ijuuin takes 19 Fire damage in return for her attack! Resist! AS: Avoid Neutral! Tyler Gould takes 124 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Avoid Worst! Hitomi Mandai takes 81 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. Resist! AS: Avoid Worst! Tyler Gould takes 146 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. AS: Tyler Gould is unable to continue fighting! AS: Block Worst! Ririka Kawase takes 74 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. AS: Avoid Best! Hitomi Mandai takes 121 Slash damage from Miho Ijuuin's Blight. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Block Best! Koh Katsuhiro takes 47 Water damage from Yua Ooshiro's Bruising Wave. AS: Break! Koh Katsuhiro can take another Weak action this round! AS: Avoid Worst! Koh Katsuhiro takes 138 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei. Critical Hit! AS: Miho Ijuuin gains 1 Limit from Momentum! AS: Avoid Worst! Umie Akabane takes 86 Fire damage from Miho Ijuuin's Mafrei.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
"Yes," Ririka confirms telepathically for Suzume before she arrives. "One of them looks like... like... like a battle bride. I haven't seen the other one, but I can feel her presence."
But that initial attack of hers didn't hit Yumi as hard as she wanted it to. Damn, and that was Amphion's strongest attack, she was pretty sure. But she blinks and flinches as Yumi turns that telepathy on her next. Loved by the Earth... "You ever think about a career as a lyricist?" she says as she steps out of the room to meet that challenge. "Analysis..." Wasn't... wasn't that something Fuuka was doing, the other night?
She can attack a little but... that move was pretty much the strongest attack she had. (But she won't say that in front of Yumi and Miyu.) And she might normally be more reticent about fighting a person, but... well, she's kind of upset, on behalf of her friend.
But she can finally see Umie for the first time. "Oh! You're--" She's about to say 'it's nice to meet you', but then Umie has something to say about a beach. Ririka frowns, glancing back and forth. "Wait-- you've met them before?"
Suzume and Shinjiro have words. "I noticed them entering the station. I reached out for help, since they seemed like..." ... like they were Persona usres. Okay, she's not sure how Umie or Miho can summon their personas without an Evoker, but questions can come later.
Ririka gives Fuuka a nod back. If Fuuka ever asks Ririka about her confidence, she might get the honest answer: that she has to go into 'show mode' to hype up a crowd, to keep her energy up... and maybe a little bit to try and push back the occasional bout of stage fright, like right now.
She grins to Koh. "Well, a girl's gotta have some stage presence, you know?" More show bravado. But she relaxes a little as Zagreus sends healing energy her way. "Thanks."
Emi is staying very close to Ririka--she and Ririka are still ensconced in some of the hardy, defensive energies of Amphion's. "Whoa... Ri-chan, your friends are amazing! I wanna watch this anime instead."
'Load Zio cartridge.' "Wait, what's a-- guys, what's she doing?" Is that an Evoker? Can her Evoker do that? These are questions she doesn't have time to articulate as Amphion is shot with lightning. Not just a weakness but also a weak spot, and Persona and User both convulse a little. Her knees buckle, but she forces herself to remain upright, for Emi's sake, though it requires her to lean on that prop sword. "Ngh-- O-okay, so that goes both ways, I guess..." Both the Analysis and the pain. That second one is an especially valuable lesson to learn.
But Miyu, kind enough to spare her hands, isn't kind enough to spare her flames. "No!" She shifts herself to protect Emi from it--and in so doing takes it all on herself, even as she raises the prop sword to try and guard through some fo the flames.
She falls to a knee, panting, as two harsh blows have suddenly taken a lot out of her. She looks over to YUumi. Speak Analysis... this can't be a trap, right? "Fine. Have it your way..." She pushes herself to her feet. "Amphion! Analysis!"
Amphion strums his lyre, buffeting Yua with sound, sound which reverberates, reflects back to Ririka, with a certain tone and timbre. She closes her eyes for a moment, one hand going to the headphones on her head as she just listens...
"A solid, steady drum beat..." she murmurs to herself, but also out loud. "... like the earth... but I also hear... a light, bright, trilling of a harp..." A weakness to Light, in other words. "... and... there's something..."
She gasps, opening her eyes to look at Yumi. "... noise and static. That's what you were doing earlier, wasn't it?
"Fine, you've shown what you can do-- now it's time for the closing number! Amphion! Show us what you got!"
And Amphion starts to play in earnest, weaving a complicated song that flows through and around Ririka and her fellow navigators, to encourage them and push them onwards in this final push.
AS: #-1: Player not found, or player not in room. AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Almighty skill Basic Analysis on Yua Ooshiro! AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions! AS: Persona! Ririka Kawase has used the Recovery skill Victory Song on Ririka Kawase, Fuuka Yamagishi, Koh Katsuhiro, and Umie Akabane! AS: Ririka Kawase's turn has ended. AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Def_Up added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Ririka Kawase gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Koh Katsuhiro spends Limit on Shift! Fuuka Yamagishi can use another Weak skill this round! <Pose Tracker> Koh Katsuhiro has posed.
There's something about 'Yumis behavior that makes Koh hesitate. Not her coerced approval of his power, not quite the words she's saying, but the visceral reaction to the Persona she herself wields. That really isn't how it's supposed to work. That's what they tell him.
"Are you--" The ill-advised question is interrupted by a rush of blue flame as the other woman draws on her own Persona. Anything the young man might have said is swallowed and burnt away in the white-hot air.
When the wave passes his lungs protest against the lingering heat, throat burning along with everything else. His eyes skitter around the dressing room seeking and finding a makeshift weapon in the form of a cracked mirror. He reachesand stops.
Instead he puts the evoker to his chin, eyes closing at Amphion's resonance pulses through his eardrums.
"Yamagishi-san. Show us what your new Persona can do, huh?"
He focuses, again, on healing. But not for entirely the same reason.
"Zagreus!"
<Pose Tracker> Tyler Gould has posed.
Is his soul stained? Tyler certainly believes it. Live, grow, learn among the paranormal long enough and you tend to believe there's multitudes of stains on your soul. Add to it his family's 'curse'?
...it wouldn't surprise him in the slightest that multitudes from the underworld stand ready at the gates to meet him.
...and, it seems, today will do nothing do dissuade him.
First come the flames, burning like the fires of Hell itself that knock him onto his back, the fiery remnants of the attack still resonating.
But it's the blight that brings Tyler the warm embrace of darkness once more, rolling over him as he tries to get back to his feet, sending him crashing back down to the ground, much like when Yukari had knocked the wind out of him after that *other* battle. No pithy comebacks, no blithe remarks, no apologies -- just acceptance.
Tyler Gould has been KO'ed!
AS: Persona! Koh Katsuhiro has used the Recovery skill Bacchanaiia: Revelry on Fuuka Yamagishi, Ririka Kawase, Umie Akabane, and Koh Katsuhiro! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Revelry. 12 SP regained! AS: Def_Up added! AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Revelry. 12 SP regained! AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Persona! Koh Katsuhiro has used the Recovery skill Media on Fuuka Yamagishi, Ririka Kawase, Umie Akabane, and Koh Katsuhiro! AS: Koh Katsuhiro: Gains 47 HP from Regen! Gains 10 SP from Vigor! Crt_Up removed! AS: Koh Katsuhiro's turn has ended. AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 76 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Ririka Kawase's Victory Song. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 0 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Revelry. 12 SP regained! AS: Atk_Up added! AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Take! Umie Akabane takes 76 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter!
<Pose Tracker> Suzume Fukura has posed.
Tyler's words get Suzume to make a face. "At this rate I'm going to have to!" He's weird, she thinks, perhaps a little hypocritically; she's weird, too. Just not in the same way. And - if she thinks about this she's going to distract herself, so she won't.
"Sure it's not," Suzume calls back to Shinjiro. "Don't think I didn't see you before!" She means in Tartarus, though she's not going to say that out in front of people she doesn't know. I'm going to find you and talk later, is the part she doesn't add; she feels it's understood.
Suzume looks right back at Hitomi, meeting her gaze. Yes, Hitomi. For real.
As far as Suzume is concerned, kicking the stand isn't fighting dirty, it's just being clever. Now, admittedly, she's never fought in a changing room like this before (or is it a dressing room? she is not entirely clear if there's a difference), and indeed she's never fought a human being in anything more dangerous than a fistfight. But it just makes sense.
Plus, it's what they do in action movies. If only she had a bat, she could *really* copy them.
But she is batless, armed only with a damaged curling iron and, granted, an Evoker, which is probably the best weapon she could be carrying, if only she can bring herself to use it. It's *still* hard to fire it when she's fighting a human being...
...though admittedly Miho (not that she knows the name) is making it easier. Masked, looking exactly like a villain, and attacking indiscriminately; that's enough to give Suzume the resolve she needs to fight more effectively. Especially when she sees Tyler stumble and fall. Suzume briefly sees red, a flash of anger she's not accustomed to.... it's not like she *likes* Tyler very much, the last time he went down is because Yukari hit him and she's threatened to do the same.
But it's different when someone who's trying to kill them does it.
She crouches - and when the blue flame comes, Suzume runs *through* it. It's not the first time she's seen it - she's been around Minako after all, to say nothing of 'everyone else who has access to Frei' - but it's the first time she's done something quite this stupid with it. The blue flame burns, but Suzume slides low mostly under the slash, a baseball slide that she turns into a rising scramble. She's managed to put away her Evoker somewhere in there, in that it is now wedged into her pocket, grip sticking out. She wasn't wearing her holster.
Atalanta is running along behind/beside Suzume, so the winds are building around her, swirling and leaving a breezy trail - so when Suzume pops up almost in front of Miho, and she delivers a rapid one-two-three series of punches, they're accompanied by powerful gusts of wind, both amplifying her force and speeding the strikes up into a blur.
The final strike, though, is the winds itself, striking with sudden intense force and threatening to launch the swordswoman across the room, accompanied by a wordless shout from Suzume!
AS: Take! Koh Katsuhiro takes 76 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media. AS: Koh Katsuhiro gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Tandem! Suzume Fukura has used the Wind skill Race the Wind on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits! AS: Suzume Fukura's turn has ended. AS: Avoid Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 38 Wind damage from Suzume Fukura's Race the Wind. AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 25 Wind damage from Suzume Fukura's Race the Wind. AS: Counter Neutral! Miho Ijuuin takes 46 Wind damage from Suzume Fukura's Race the Wind. AS: COUNTER! Suzume Fukura takes 8 Wind damage in return for her attack! Resist! AS: Hitomi Mandai spends Limit on Psych!
<Pose Tracker> Hitomi Mandai has posed.
Perhaps Hitomi doesn't have her head fully in the game. She can perhaps be forgiven in this: it is not as though any of them really came here in expectation of encountering a situation like this. She might not have had an Evoker at all, were she dependent on them.
Her eyes flick momentarily towards the screaming Yumi, but Yumi isn't, quite, her enemy.
"You speak English?" Hitomi says, a transient burst of something driving irrelevancies. She cringes back with her arms raised in a clumsy but apparently effective cross-block as the blue flames lick over her forearms, leaving her slightly blistered but not --
-- the toxic shockwave is worse. The world blurs. She sags forwards for a moment, her vision swimming, skin sheening suddenly in cold sweat as she makes a sound best rendered as "gkk" and then as "guh" and then finally as -
"Gould -- shit..."
A wheezing breath in and she halfway-pleads: "Tyche..."
A burst of flame streaks from the called-forth statue-icon, a fireworks-shriek as they surge downwards at almost the same time as Suzume charges in. A victory celebration despite how badly-off Hitomi looks in this exact moment. Maybe this was all part of her plan.
(Not yet.)
AS: Persona! Hitomi Mandai has used the Fire skill Explosion of Fortune on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits! AS: Hitomi Mandai: Psych removed! AS: Hitomi Mandai's turn has ended. AS: Avoid Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 16 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Explosion of Fortune. Resist! AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 53 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Explosion of Fortune. Critical Hit! Resist! AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 34 Fire damage from Hitomi Mandai's Explosion of Fortune. Resist! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 0 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Bacchanaiia: Revelry. 12 SP regained! AS: Crt_Up added! AS: You have 1 more attack in queue! AS: Take! Ririka Kawase takes 76 Recovery healing from Koh Katsuhiro's Media.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Koh's healing takes some of the pain of being slashed back by Umie's own attack.
Unfortunately for Ririka (as well as her first physical impressions of Umie), Umie's sensing blood in the water. She's locked in.
"Oh, did I hit a nerve?" Umie's scythe-like smile makes an appearance as she leans forward towards Yua, tilting her head. "Why were you at Ebisu Beach, then? A pleasant walk? Looking for secrets? Why don't you tell me--" Umie's relentless questions are drowned by Yua's waters, throwing her back from the protective sphere of 'keeping nearby Shinjiro'.
Is Umie being rude? Well, in her head, she feels justified. However, what Miho says next, as well as what happens *afterwards*, as Umie gets up on soaked sneakers, changes the situation entirely.
There's a spark, like two ringing bells that fall into tune. An unwelcome secret, exchanged in the dark, without words.
..... "_Shut up_." The shaken venom in those two words exceeds anything someone like Shinjiro may have heard from Umie, and the surge in resonance that follows.
'Heehee, did she hit a nerve? Don't worry~ she doesn't know the real you at all.'
Blue flame licks through the room, heating the water weighing her down. Koh's healing and Ririka's newfound powers soothe, warming her heart as Umie calls Badb with little in the way of gusto, a combo of dark energy issuing out towards Miho.
Unfortunately, Mai-chan's bell-like voice doesn't leave just yet, softly whispering, 'I'm the only one that does.'
Those words had soothed Umie in the past, despite their finality. Tonight, for some reason she can't put her finger on, they feel possessive. Constrictive, like a brand.
Reddish-brown eyes widen, a guttural shriek echoing in Badb's own movements, inversing white to black and vice versa, in her vision.
AS: Umie Akabane spends Limit on Psych! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Stagnant Air on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits! AS: Persona! Umie Akabane has used the Dark skill Pale Shriek on Miho Ijuuin! 3 Hits! AS: Umie Akabane: Gains 49 HP from Regen! Gains 10 SP from Vigor! Psych removed! AS: Umie Akabane's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Koh calls upon Zagreus, and healing light spreads out. Fuuka's panic eases, a little, but still remains.
Fuuka asks a question, and gets an answer.
"Yumi-san - 'you and me'..." Fuuka repeats. Her English isn't quite as good as Yumi's is. "It's... nice to meet you."
She indeed recognizes it as a veil - but not fully a lie. Another self, similar to the way Lucia is to her...? And she recognizes the power Yumi wields, similar to her own, and yet different. Briefly, she feels a sense of kinship with someone like her - though they currently stand on different sides. Drawing strength from her weaknesses...
It's admirable, in a way. A part of Fuuka wishes she could do that, too.
And she apologises, calling her Sybil - Fuuka, an avid reader, recognizes the word. She's known for what she is... Yumi recognizes the likeness, too - and then, a cage of darkness forms around Lucia.
"Lucia -" Fuuka gasps out - and the darkness, wretched and cursed floods in. For a moment, she is lost in the darkness - and then through the darkness, comes a wave of scorching blue flames, courtesy of Miyu.
Lucia is strong, devoted to protecting Fuuka and those nearby from harm - but even the most powerful Persona will find it difficult to weather attacks from two other powerful Persona-users, particularly one so well-suited to striking where she's most vulnerable.
Though Lucia protects her from direct harm, the backlash of it is enough to drive Fuuka to her knees, her vision swimming for a moment.
Thankfully, she isn't alone here. Ririka draws upon Amphion's power, and Fuuka hears his song a song of encouragement... and from Koh's Zagreus, a strenghtening wave, followed after by a wave of healing. It's enough to allow her to get, shakily, back to her feet.
She can feel them all around her - they're all pushed to their brink. Tyler, though she doesn't know him well, has been knocked out... If she doesn't fight back... They're counting on her.
"I'm sorry, Yumi-san..." Fuuka apologizes. "Lucia, please..."
Once more, Lucia spreads her arms wide. An energizing wave rushes out, finding others nearby...
...And then, three points of light form into the air in front of her. They shape themselves into daggers, and Lucia grasps them in hand - and they are hurled, then, toward Yumi.
AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Recovery skill Rousing Wave on Fuuka Yamagishi and Shinjiro Aragaki! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi takes 60 damage from Panic! AS: Take! Fuuka Yamagishi takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Rousing Wave. AS: Spd_Up added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi spends Limit on Psych! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Persona! Fuuka Yamagishi has used the Light skill Kouha on Yua Ooshiro! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi: Loses 55 HP from Poison! Gains 45 HP from Regen! Gains 10 SP from Vigor! Panic, Poison, Crt_Up, and Psych removed! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi's turn has ended.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Miyu refuses to share. "I'll have to assume the worst then...!" Shinjiro grimaces, as... Hitomi winks at him? What? Why.
Shaking his head and just glancing at Suzume with a sigh, he pulls his sign up to guard... and finds it *melted* by the indiscriminate blue flame, ruining a perfectly good NO ENTRY sign. This is followed by the slashing shockwave, knocking him off his feet as he's burnt and cut pretty badly. Is Shinjiro down...?
Slowly, he rises back up, putting the Evoker back to his head. Another click and a blue flash, and...
"CASTOR, FUCK HER UP!"
The Persona rushes forward, his hobby horse leaping into the air before *slamming* onto the ground near her, creating a powerful striking shockwave that is difficult to block even with a sword.
But as Umie gets *upset*, and her eyes widen (he saw that!), he's moving over to her. He sighs, but he's making sure she knows she has support. "I'm here."
He can't know what's truly going on. But maybe it'll help her... he's growing fond of her, after all.
He shouldn't be doing that.
Fuuka, meanwhile, gets a thumbs up, shakily, as the buff overcomes Shinjiro. He's glad she's doing well... it wasn't in vain.
AS: Take! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 0 Recovery healing from Fuuka Yamagishi's Rousing Wave. AS: Crt_Up added! AS: Fuuka Yamagishi gains 1 Limit from Supporter! AS: Persona! Shinjiro Aragaki has used the Strike skill Heat Wave on Miho Ijuuin! AS: Shinjiro Aragaki: Eclipse removed! AS: Shinjiro Aragaki's turn has ended. AS: Avoid Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 22 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Stagnant Air. AS: Avoid Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 33 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Stagnant Air. Critical Hit! AS: Avoid Worst! Miho Ijuuin takes 33 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Stagnant Air. AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 59 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. Critical Hit! AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 48 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. AS: Block Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 48 Dark damage from Umie Akabane's Pale Shriek. AS: Counter Best! Miho Ijuuin takes 163 Strike damage from Shinjiro Aragaki's Heat Wave. Critical Hit! AS: COUNTER! Shinjiro Aragaki takes 63 Strike damage in return for his attack! AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Recovery healing from Yua Ooshiro's Wide Shroud. AS: Eclipse added! AS: Break! Yua Ooshiro can take another Weak action this round! AS: Take! Yua Ooshiro takes 0 Almighty damage from Ririka Kawase's Basic Analysis. AS: Ririka Kawase's Strength Scan! Yua Ooshiro resists Earth! AS: Ririka Kawase's Weakness Scan! Yua Ooshiro is weak against Light! AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 13 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Eclipsed! AS: Eclipse removed! AS: Block Best! Yua Ooshiro takes 26 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Weak! AS: Haze added! AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ooshiro takes 24 Light damage from Fuuka Yamagishi's Kouha. Weak!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ooshiro has posed.
"I am granted as many powers as I require for the completion of my mission," Yumi informs Ririka, in the wake of her shock over the cartridges. Her confusion is reasonable -- her light, sleek pistol is noticebly different from the heavy revolver which looks even larger in Yumi's slight hands, though they must both be Evokers.
Ririka invokes her own Analysis, though, and Yumi tilts her head. "I see," she reflects, in turn. "Sybil, yours is hark to harmonics."
She turns her gaze to Koh, then, as he asks -- as he burns. "I am that I am as I am," and surely all she is confirming is her madness.
Tyler falls, as she witnesses his spirit, gripped now by his dire belief, smashing the door-post and forcing the doors. "He is loved overmuch by the drowning deep," she reports, to Miyu, just as she's asked, "yet laid low by a single striking palm. Steady in the face of mental contagion, his is satisfaction in the face of your misfortunes. Perhaps it is a point of communion, to his eyes... yet I feel nothing of him like us."
She turns to Umie, and perhaps her glare can be felt, even if it can't be seen beneath those veils... save for that gold glint where her left eye must be which might feel horrifically familiar to her, as it meets her gaze. "Do not ADDRESS my Miyu so!" She cries, to her, imperious in her rage. "You ask too many questions, wretch! And you!" She adds, whipping around to regard Shinjiro. "Speak with more respect!"
She's more apologetic to Fuuka, at least -- and Fuuka, in turn, is apologetic to her. Her obscure protection defends her from the first blast of light from Lucia -- but the second fires directly into Gretchen, and the third shatters her, the Persona disappearing like so many shards of glass. "Gretchen!" Yumi screams, distraught to see it, as if she'd seen a dear friend laid low.
But Yumi has not only been fighting them, in Gretchen's clutches. The terrors of the studio have continued, through their halls, and it is when she hears a man she's attuned to cry his penitence alongside her grief that her hands clasp together again, around the grip of her revolver.
"It is done," she says, filled with her own regrets, "and damn us all. Gretchen!"
Yumi brings her too-heavy Evoker to her eye, and fires. In a dark explosion of power, Yumi and Miyu disappear from the dressing room...
... though, in this artificially-created space, they don't go far. The two reappear at the entrance to the studio, relying on Yumi's continued jamming to obscure them as they flee out of the hell they made of the studio.
Once Yumi is gone, at least, the suppressive noise of her Anti-Navigation soon fades -- and with it, the trap she made. The darkness flees the studio, and no longer does it feel as if one might lose their way with each corner they turn. The ability to summon one's Persona in the space lingers, though -- will linger for a while longer, yet; but they might want to put their Personas away, as the noise of the studio reaches them again, and they're at risk of the makeup artists coming back in.
'What a horrible blackout!', they'll say, as if that was all it was. 'I could scarcely see my hand in front of my face!' When the news reports on it, this evening, they'll express concerns it might have been a criminal act -- though police will find no signs of tampering in the station's electrical supply. Still, the rumour that it might have been the result of some criminal element...
... it's effectively chilling to the free press, particularly given the terrifying experience one journalist went through.
Even if he and his compatriots find the bravery to continue their story on the Tien Tao Lien -- they know they're engaging with enemy forces, now.
<Pose Tracker> Miho Ijuuin has posed.
Miho would not argue about fighting dirty; outside of Sport, you fight to win or you lose. So she doesn't begrudge that. It's true, of course--that Miho is not aiming to kill. But she doesn't make that at all plain, and her flames and swordplay certainly look lethal enough. Suzume runs through the flamse--and as she slides under the slashing, Suzume and the winds rapidly crash into Miho. She is able to dodge the first strike, block the second, but the third--the third she can't quite parry, and while she isn't sent ass over teakettle, she is knocked back a good ways.
Miho does also speak English. But Tyche appears, and despite Faust and Miho's strength against fire, the shriek of that burst of flames crashes down. It is a glorious celebration, and Miho is forced to attempt to dodge it rather than parry it, which would work much better if she weren't recovering her footing from Suzume's strike.
"Gh," she announces. "Was it fire? Let me show you how--"
Miho can think of greater crimes than rudeness. But there's a smile under her mask when she's told to shut up. "Hm hm. I wonder, do your friends know the truth?"
Before she can smug too much about that, Castor appears to fuck her up. The darkness she can handle; the darkness hits her, but she survives. The Heat Wave, however, lets out a crack as her armor plating loses some of its coherence under the force of a Persona that could knock in a building's wall. "Hmmm..."
But Tyler? No, he is not like them. "I see..."
And then they are gone.
Outside, Miho leads Yua out. They will trouble Sumaru TV no more this day.
<Pose Tracker> Ririka Kawase has posed.
Koh might have had the benefit of having had some things explained to him. Ririka has gotten some explanations, probably, but this entire day is a day of firsts for her. But he summons forth his Persona to offer both energy and life, and Ririka feels her stance growing stronger. "Thanks," she says, with a heavy breath.
But she can feel Tyler's signature going weak, his sound dimming. Not completely--but he can't keep fighting. "Dammit..." Can she help with that? She's pretty sure she can, but she can't test that theory at the moment.
But even as Umie seeks to hit a nerve in Yua, Miho hits a nerve of hers, and there is a surge of Resonance--Ririka flinches away from it, her head snapping over to the other Persona user. "What was that?"
There are all sorts of kinships forming today--Fuuka might be finding one to Yumi, but Ririka has found some with Fuuka. ... And maybe a little bit Yumi, but she's still sorting out her feelings about her.
But she did invoke Analysis, as Yumi notes. "Yeah... that's kind of my thing." But she has to wonder to herself... Sibyl...? Look that one up later. She's too busy trying to keep Emi safe.
But out loud, she wonders... "Miyu...? Me and you...?" You and Me. Me and You.
Her mind is trying to go some places it really shouldn't right now.
But Yumi and Miyu make their exit, and Ririka winces, as suddenly she's caught in the trap. "Augh... is this what you guys were going through...? How did I even reach you before..."
And with the danger passed, Ririka wobbles on her feet. "Guys, I..." And she's slumping to the ground as her Persona dismisses itself.
"Ri-chan!" exclaims Emi as she knees, checking on her friend. Carefully, she grbs that Evoker and stashes it in Ririka's backpack, just like she saw it was stahsed before. She looks to the others, silent for a moment as she figures out what to say.
"... You should hide those. The makeup artist is heading back..." And to the makeup artist herself, she'll say...
"The battle bride did it! She made a big mess and ran off!"
If anybody tries to question her about this later, though, she'll just act like that was the real explanation, forgetting everything that happened. In conjunction with the blackout, of course.
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Shinjiro sends her a thumbs-up, and Fuuka sends him a grateful nod in return. She remembers him from the other night.
Gretchen disappears into shards - but whatever it was that Yumi and Miyu were here for, it seems they've finished it - and with another firing of the Evoker, they are gone. Fuuka recoils back at the explosion of darkness, and the jamming that obscures her sight... but soon enough, it clears - and so too does any trace that they were here.
"I can sense something lingering, but... I think they're gone." Fuuka announces, then looks toward Ririka with a nod. "Yes... That awful darkness. It was difficult even to notice each other. If it weren't for you, we would've been lost."
Ririka has the same power as she does, too... This is definitely something she'll want to talk with her about. But as she's thinking about this... Ririka slumps to her feet.
"Kawase-san!" Fuuka gasps. She looks toward Emi, blinks for a second - and then, realising what she means, nods and stows the Evoker away. She hurries over to check on her.
"Are you alright?" Fuuka asks, looking toward Emi - then back toward Ririka.
She remembers how exhausting it was summoning Lucia for the first - no doubt it's the same for her, too.
"Thank you, Kawase-san..." Fuuka says. She can't really help carry her - but she will do whatever else she can to help.
<Pose Tracker> Umie Akabane has posed.
Shinjiro's instinct is correct; as he moves closer to her, Umie seems to remember herself and slowly moves herself down, settling her nerves.
Guilt, naturally, follows. She should be the senpai, after all, rather than gain comfort from someone younger than her.
She shifts into tutor mode reflexively, taking a moment to sense the area around her as she closes her eyes.
"So it's just like at Ebisu Beach... Not sure what's going on there. Or why they were attacking us." Were they? She couldn't make any sense of things.
Ririka's on the ground. "... Also. We better get her out of here. Our Personas will be available for a little while longer, it feels like. Use that to your advantage." She looks to Koh, Fuuka as she says that. "I can't really sense where any people are, but that doesn't mean anything, since..."
She closes her eyes, and concentrates, willing her resonance to settle back into its box, sealing it from view. Anyone paying attention, it's like someone's placed an invisibility cloak, resonance-wise, on right in front of them. "... I'm beginning to think, along with navigators, there's people like me that can cloak themselves, a little. I can't do what they did, though. I'm not sure anyone else can." She nods to Fuuka. "But I didn't know navigators even existed, until several days ago. Seems we're all learning things."
She wants to soak in a bathtub and not come out until she's wrinkled like a prune, but it'll have to wait. "I'm not supposed to be here. Aragaki, I'm going to get going." Her voice is drained, in spite of her tutor mask. But still, it feels good, to be there to help. Maybe, this wasn't a bad idea, it get involved in someone else's battle. (Not that she has ever, ever let it stop her before.)
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
"Oh, yes, that's a good idea..." Fuuka replies, as Umie explains that their Personas will be available for a little longer. She notices, too, when Umie disappears from her senses - even though she's still there, right in front of her. "So that's what they did..."
She shakes her head.
"'Navigators'... Is that what it's called?" Fuuka replies consideringly. "...I didn't know, either. I still have a lot to learn..."
That's something else she can share with Ririka, when she awakens.