2025-10-10: Game Over, Sis, Game Over
- Log: 2025-10-10: Game Over, Sis, Game Over
- Cast: Minato Arisato, Minako Arisato
- Where: Iwatodai Dorm, Port Island
- OOC Date: October 10, 2025
- IC Date: July 24, 2012
- Summary: Minako and Minato catch up, even as they try to contend with studying for finals. The matter of Minako's not-quite-boyfriend comes up.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
The second day of exams has come and gone, and Minato is now sitting at the table at the dorms, scribbling down notes as if it's not two days too late to study.
"Mitosis... cell division which creates precisely the same amount of chromosomes in each cell..."
Minato groans as his head careens forward to thunk against his exercise book.
"... game over," he incants, gravely.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako hasn't been studying as much as she should. But she is looking at some reading material that she has been focused on, with a laser focus. It is on her phone; she is staring down at it with intent.
While her notes on literature are, mostly, abandoned.
And she looks up at her brother and blinks when he speaks. She has that distracted tone of voice -- the one that says, 'I didn't quite follow what you meant' -- and she says a tried and true line:
"The game's hard, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"The game of life... it's impossible..."
Oh no, Minato isn't playing a game, he's moody about existence.
He pulls himself up with great effort -- Gry claim his bones! -- and looks to Minako, orienting on what she's looking at, instead.
"Phone... what's with the phone?"
Minato, you're going to make a horror from beyond crash through the window at this rate.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"It's possible if you just keep at it," Minako says, looking up at her brother. She directs a sunny smile right at him -- though, then she gets a bit of a crooked grin. "What's got you down? The exams? The forthcoming results of the exams? Both?"
She is trying to distract him. Naturally, it doesn't work. When he looks at her phone--
It has a text chain with someone.
--she quickly snatches it away, hiding it under her hand. "J-Just talking to someone, that's all, no big deal, totally easy-peasy, Minato-kun!"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Yes," Minato answers, like a mathematician. It's a very efficient answer.
But her phone has a text chain, and that's infinitely more fascinating than the biological processes behind how twins come to be.
"Suspicious..." He notes, fixing her with a suspicious expression, too. (Well, one third of a suspicious expression. God forbid he emote.)
"I understand my mission."
With that, he leaps upon Minako to wrestle her and try to get that phone.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Life can be cruel and relentless," Minako says philosophically. And with a nod that she thinks looks quite sage.
She spots that expression. And it takes her a moment to register what that expression means. A moment too long, though Minako understands what it means before most would. She yelps and then she scrambles.
But it's too late. He leaps onto her; she tries to get the phone away, but Minato grabs it.
"Unhand me, villain!" she squawks.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Minato wrassles!! And he is the superior wrassler, because he's bigger. Lo --
"Wha."
Minato is so surprised he even drops the T. (Coincidentally, up in his control room watching everything, Ikutsuki manages to spill his cup of tea. Oh no, it's everywhere! How unfor-tea-nate...) These text messages... are very...
The villain unhands Minako, staring at her, aghast.
"When were you going to tell me you had a boyfriend."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
The conversation is, indeed, incriminating.
MINAKO: I bet you're going to ace chemistry, based on experience, Amamiya-san~ <3
REN: If I do, it'll be because you've been such a great study partner ;)
MINAKO: I'm a girl of many talents!
REN: Then I'll have to study harder to keep up...
REN: This is going to be such a long week
MINAKO: I know what you mean... just a little more tho rite?
REN: Yeah... I had a few good study sessions last week so I'm confident I won't fail, at least
REN: That probably doesn't sound very impressive. Can I say I'm confident I'll ace it instead?
MINAKO: You get one take-back a week. <3 But I'm confident in you!
MINAKO: I bet I ajhg5vj
REN: haha ty
REN: Everything OK?
Minako's face turns a bright red shade. She stares at him -- and at her phone in his hands. The last bit was typed as the struggle occurred. She sputters as she looks at him, then she points at him.
"He's not my boyfriend!" she insists. Squeaks, in fact. "Yet! He's not my boyfriend yet!"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Uh," Minato says, his own face a touch red, as he hands the phone back to Minako. "Your not boyfriend is worried about you."
...
...
...
He rubs at the back of his neck, looking over at the far wall. Wow look at that calendar! That's a great decoration! "... Amamiya-kun, huh... he's nice...?"
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Minako snatches her phone back with the peevishness that only an aggrieved sibling, grabbing a stolen toy, can manage. She calms down after that, a little; her expression more mellow, though her face is red, and she looks to the side.
"Uh..."
She trails off, then. "...let me just tell him everything is fine."
MINAKO: yeah it's all gucchi! hey my brother needs something talk later okay? <3
Then she puts the phone down on the table. Screen down, as it happens, before she looks at him. "He's nice," she agrees. "Uh... I asked him out. He said he needs to think about it." She hesitates.
Then, a little quieter. "...sorry. I wasn't sure how to tell you."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"N--no," Minato says, and stammers, because he's almost as embarrassed as Minako. (Pound for pound, she certainly wins this contest, though.) "I was a jerk. Didn't realise it was that big a deal."
He was just going to give his sister a hard time and he stumbled on her relationship drama?! What kind of teenage girl has that!!!
"S-so... you asked him, huh... that's pretty forward-thinking..." Minako's a modern girl for a modern era! "... he seemed like a good guy when I met him. Can see why you'd like him."
Minato sits himself back down in a chair, because boy, this is all a Lot. A touch haplessly, he asks, "... is this, uh... normal for you, or new, or..."
You know, when you've grown apart over years, at some point you don't actually know if your sister is used to dating or not.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"W-Well, I mean, normally it is stupid pictures or whatever," Minako says, with a sigh. She rubs her hand against her face -- and then she shakes her head.
"I, um. I--no, not really," she admits. Then, she sighs, and her shoulders slump. "Not ever before. I wasn't sure if I should ask him. If I was really--uh, if it was something I want to do. Go on dates."
She glances to the side. "But he's a good guy. He doesn't know, but he was worried about Yamagishi," Minako adds. "And... um."
She exhales.
"I talked to Takeba-chan about it, a little," she says. "And I decided... I should ask, if I wanted, and... see how it feels. I wasn't really sure."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Yeah," Minato says, of the stupid pictures. "Like this."
He pulls his phone out of his pocket to show Minako what he'd most recently pulled up -- a cat draped over an armrest with English text declaring it to be some measure of train.
Minato looks up very important things on his phone. It's only fair Minako get to see that, too.
Still... she hasn't, not really. "It's cool," he assures her. "I haven't done that much, either... though I guess someone decided I was their boyfriend once when I didn't even realise it. That was something." He might have made a girl cry just by uttering the words, 'not really'.
Anyway.
"But... it's normal, right? It can be good." Not that he'd have any idea how to even start explaining Ichika to his sister. Nope, Yukari can handle telling her that making out is great actually. "And it's not like you can't change your mind later."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"Train... cat?" Minako repeats, with her head tilted to the side in some manner of confusion. But she still smiles -- because after all, a picture of a cute cat is a picture of a cute cat.
She sighs, then, and she looks relieved. But she does blink at what he says. "That sounds like a really intense misunderstanding," Minako says. "Owch."
She scratches at the back of her head -- then she nods, once. "Yeah. That's true," she says. She smiles. "I can change my mind later. I mean--um. I hope.... I hope it works out. Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm..."
It sounds too awkward and too painful to admit the truth -- that maybe something broke after their parents, and she isn't cut out for this sort of thing. She smiles, instead, and then she laughs in a good-natured way.
"I'm kind of a lot, sometimes, you know?" she finishes.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Train cat," Minato confirms straight-faced.
Still, he nods, still quite straight-faced. "Ouch," he agrees, mildly.
Minako's nervous about it, though. Minato can tell, even though she's laughing. "You're hard to pin down," he agrees, tone not shifting much at all. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. It's about giving someone else the chance, too."
He's quiet, for a moment -- quieter than normal, that is.
"After we rescued Yamagishi-san, I had to shift my thinking," he admits. "I started to think there were things I wanted, not just things I had to do. Well, I realised I thought someone was interesting, so I tried asking her... in that case, she wasn't interested, but it wasn't bad to try. It was... still nervewracking, though."
He does not of course say just who he tried a line on, because she'd never forgive him, and he does at least want to be friends.
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"I'm a fan," Minako decides on the subject of monorail cat.
She does blink -- and then she smiles a little when he says she is hard to pin down. Even if she winces. "Owch," she repeats. She stays quiet for a second, though, as she considers it -- and then she nods. "Yeah. I know I am. But... I guess I didn't think about it that way. Giving someone else the chance..."
She trails off, though. She blinks when Minato says that -- and she raises an eyebrow. She doesn't quite put together the other side of it -- the side that Yukari talked about.
But she can't quite imagine her brother and Yukari.
"Things you wanted...?" she repeats. "There's... I-I mean, it's always okay to want things. But--um--I get what you mean. Sometimes it's hard to feel like it's okay to want something." Or someone.
She hesitates. "It is nervewracking," she says. "And he didn't say no. It's just... up in the air. And I feel like I'm either waiting to do a crash landing or lift off, to be honest." She smiles, again, though it's a touch rueful. "But... I want him to be able to say no, too, if he wants."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Good," Minato nods, firmly.
And then he wounds his sister!! It's okay, Minako, he has to stab you so you can move forward with your life, this is normal.
He'd hang his head with a bell gong of sorrow if he knew that Minako couldn't even imagine him and Yukari, though. Luckily, Minato can't read minds!!
"Or have preferences," Minato agrees, on the heels of Minako's understanding, which is just, escalatingly dire. He doesn't dwell on that, though.
Because... she's waiting. And that's hard. "Arisatos are decisive," Minato points out, quite sure of himself. "But uncertainty is the opposite... it can be painful. We're people who do something, but sometimes, doing something doesn't solve anything... doing nothing is harder. You know, 'neutral action'. Neither moving away or towards." It's the hardest part of strategy to master... just don't ask Minato where he learned it unless you want to learn about video games.
"Try to trust him," Minato suggests, "though I get it's not that easy. If he's really a good guy, he won't be making you wait for no reason. All the action is happening on his end. And I think he's probably as nervous as you are."
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
Maybe, one day, it will feel second nature to her. One day.
Minako smiles. There's a slight nod at the remark about preferences -- something she has also struggled with -- and then her eyes light up a little. "We are decisive, aren't we?" she says. "Maybe it's why Kirijo-senpai gave this job to us."
She laughs a little. But, then, Minako nods at him. "You're right," she adds. "Doing nothing is harder. I never heard it put as neutral action, but... yeah." She falls quiet for a moment, then. Minako looks thoughtful, thinking back to Ren at the train station.
"...Yeah," she says, more softly. "I think he probably is. And I do trust him. Just... waiting, like you said. But... I just have to trust him." She looks back at her brother -- and Minako's expression turns thoughtful. Her smile is smarter.
"When did you go and grow up on me, and get so smart?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Probably," Minato agrees. "That, and the power we have. We're more versatile than other members of SEES, so we can adapt our strategy to support any team we bring out."
But they are decisive, and doing nothing is hard. He's quite sure of that!!
(And that's why he phrases it in term of an action instead of no action.)
"It isn't easy," Minato says, and it's just as mild as anything else he's said, but he's trying to be supportive.
Then -- a smart smile!!! (How does one smile smartly? Mysteries of Minako.) Minato blinks, a third of surprise crossing over his features. "I grew up?" He asks, surprised. "I just put myself in your shoes, and considered the situation..."
No one tell him that he's supposed to be squeamish about empathising with girls at his age lest he be maligned as a giiiirl.
"If it was me," he supposes, "I'd want to be doing something. So, come here." He taps at his exercise book. "I'm revising our science topics for tomorrow. We'll need a sound strategy to succeed."
RUN AWAY MINAKO HE'S TRYING TO MAKE YOU STUDY
<Pose Tracker> Minako Arisato has posed.
"The power is pretty useful, too," Minako admits, with a thoughtful look. Even if she cannot explain where it came from -- and the part about Igor and Theodore seems hard to believe. Certainly, no other Persona user has encountered such a thing that she knows of.
The smart smile becomes a smart laugh. "Mm-hm. You're... more insightful, I think, now that you're older. Or maybe not because of that," she says. "But... I guess it is that simple. As putting yourself in someone's shoes."
But why are other people not as good at it?
Then, his finger taps the exercise book. Minako's frown is certainly not smart. And she almost starts to run, but... but sometimes, letting your brother win is important.
"Fiiiiine," she sighs. She scoots over closer to him. "Theorycraft away, Minato-kun."