2025-11-05: Figuring It Out
- Log: Figuring It Out
- Cast: Hazuki Nakao, Roger
- Where: Shimokitazawa - Street Scene
- OOC Date: November 05, 2025
- IC Date: August 03, 2012
- Summary: Immediately after saving Taro Nakata from his Homunculus, Hazuki brings Roger out into the real world, revealing a human for. They buy treats. They talk their future plans and lodging, with Hazuki planning on putting Roger up in a hotel until they can find him a long-term place. In the end, they reinforce their growing bond, as members of a team who'll help people.
(|======================= Shimokitazawa - Street Scene =======================|) -================================================ Tokyo/Shimokitazawa Ward ====- Shimokitazawa is a neighborhood of densely-packed buildings near the Shimo-Kitazawa Station, where the Odakyu Electric and Keio Inokashira lines intersect. The winding alleyways and smaller spaces for shops and venues have kept away the big-money chains, leaving space for dozens of small and independent fashion shops to sprout up, cozily tucked and intermingled with bars, cafes, live music venues and theaters. The narrow streets of Shimokitazawa can be confining, especially when there is a crowd; the shops have colorful signs, and offer a panoply of experiences, each of them striving to radiate a vision of their own kind of cool. A crisp and efficient tile-and-straight-edges men's clothier sits across from a heavily-tagged used clothing shop. The streets stay lively at night, with music belting out to the lonely hearts of the big city from dozens of hole-in-the-wall jazz bars and rock venues. In summer, dance festivals trail throughout the narrow streets, bringing back a traditional vibe... until the next day, of course. Local landmarks include the station itself; the Matsuda Theater, a 400-seat venue that has helped drive the boom in smaller-scale theater throughout the neighborhood; and the not-too distant Gotoku-ji temple, famous for its vast collection of beckoning maneki-nekos, each of them enshrined in a place of honor on the temple grounds. <Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki was on the verge of passing out in the Atelier. It's mostly gone once they returned to the internet cafe, but after some introductions and Figuring Basic Things Out, it was time to part from Akari and figure out some hard stuff.
Like what to do with the fact that Roger is in the real world.
Outside the internet cafe in Shimokitazawa that Hazuki chose is a different kind of cafe. Hazuki is too tired and thirsty and hungry to immediately jump on a train, so she's gonna order them treats, taking an outdoor table and watching the streets.
"Pick anything you want," she'll say once they're given menus. "You okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
There was also a real row by the people running that net cafe about who Roger was, where he came from, and why he didn't pay to use the stalls. Roger, being guileless about the (to humans, and to be fair, it largely is the) "real" world beyond what little was shared prior, said probably the funniest honest answers imaginable that will only be funny in retrospect.
And also a polite request to maybe take off the mascot costume (his old self) because they're not accepting advertisements for whatever in there. He's perfectly human-looking underneath, which is to say... he passes for human enough. He's kind of, uh, gonk, with a few vaguely pig-like traits to his appearance.
One round of Figuring Basic Things Out later...!
"There's a lot of rules in how to play as a human being, isn't there..." He has gotten contemplative since the early trials, questions, and answers of it. "Very complex."
He has a menu in his hand. "I'm thinking... maybe... we could start with a cherry, then a strawberry, an orange, an apple, then... melon, and... do spaceships and bells have flavors? I don't see those here... do they have keys...? Is a key lime that?"
(...uh, is he legally allowed to make this joke?)
Nonetheless, these bizarre thoughts manifest eventually in the form of a cherry smoothie of some kind, and strawberry-flavored pastries. Despite what the next obvious step might be in the Grand Tour of Learning to be Human, he's... a neat eater. Who knew.
"I'm having fun! I want to play with everyone as someone, so that's why I followed you out!" He says, genuinely and warmly, albeit almost like a tone that might have come out of media meant for younger ages.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki had to use all her Charm prompts to get them out of that (and also pay for Roger's time). Needless to say, she's still beat.
But now that they're at the cafe... Hazuki tilts her head, taking a moment to get his reference. "No, it's... what IS a key lime?" she wonders.
And then, they have pastries, with her having a croissant and a coffee to give her enough energy to get home.
"I'm glad," she smiles to Roger. "But... shouldn't you have stayed in your Atelier?" she asks. She sighs. "If you're going to be out here, we'll need to find you some place to stay..."
It's weird, that he's no longer a pig. But she doesn't mind. He's still Roger!
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Roger tilts his head at the thought of staying in his Atelier. "It's... really strange. I never even thought about the idea of leaving before, but..."
"...it was really strange in the Atelier, too." Roger looks downcast for a moment. "There shouldn't be any reason for a difference between Humors. I don't know why I was singled out at all! I rooted around in thought thinking about it, and I still don't know why the other Sanguin Humors weren't talking to me. Or why the Coleric Humors didn't listen to me, or... anything like that."
"But you did, Hazuki-chan. You and all your friends! So I want to keep playing with all of you. So I left!" He says it like it's the simplest thing now, cheerfully, though it segues into a very difficult, important problem that needs resolution. Some place to stay...
"Um," he presses his fingers together, "I didn't think about that part..." After all, Roger kind of just spontaneously appeared in this world without a birth certificate, family, history, or anything which is already weird and alarming!
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki frowns sympathetically as Roger goes downcast, picking at her croissant. "Maybe... you were supposed to move on? I did that... light show thing... because I felt it was my purpose. Maybe your purpose is to be out here too?"
She doesn't know what happened. Only that it was important.
Though, she smiles as he becomes cheerful. "Well, you're welcome here as long as you want, though..."
Yes, thinking about where he'll stay. "My grandma would probably freak out... maybe some of the people who helped know where to stay? There's some of those cool adults, like Myunghon... I can talk to them. Until then... I can dip into my allowance to find you a hotel!" She's gonna be broke *very* fast.
A pause. "I'll ask grandma, too, just in case. Oh, or we could hide you in the garage!"
Hazuki, not that one.
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Supposed to move on... I've never known any Humors to do anything like that." Beat. "Oh! I've never known any Humors to get their own Persona like me, either!"
No one's ever known of any Shadows getting their own, even if there's those strange cases like Morgana (whom insists they are actually human!) and Pernelle (who is... Pernelle).
...But where he'll stay now, as opposed to how everyone got where they are now, is going to be important. He's already experiencing matters like 'hunger' and 'fatigue' and 'people can't be split up into four easily understood categories of personality and role in an environment' and it's admirable he even has any sort of capacity to let it stew and cogitate into complex thought.
"...Is it because I'd be scary?" Roger asks, about hiding in the garage. "The ones with the red armbands seemed like they weren't having all that much fun with me..." Beat. "But I had fun with them!"
...Even if all that complex thought inevitably, and invariably, ends up somewhere within the collective existential goal of 'play!'
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
Hazuki takes a drink of her coffee, as she nods. "You're special, then! You're a player, not just a mob..."
Hazuki considers, though. "Well, kinda... we have a concept called 'stranger danger'. Some people don't trust people they don't know, especially around people my age, right? So if I asked grandma if you could stay with me, she might think something bad could happen or someone could get hurt, even though it wouldn't!"
A pause, as he mentions SEES... "I don't get them either. They seem... really morbid. I think they're good people, but I'm an optimist. I don't get along well with cynics..." A shake of the head. "But it's okay! We're a team now, you, me, and Hoshi-senpai. We'll figure out how to do this all by ourselves next time can get together..."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
Stranger danger.
Roger frowns in consideration of one of his strawberry pastries. "Telling apart 'friend' from 'not' was a lot easier in an Atelier." Life was simpler in an Atelier, because he was also much simpler. "Maybe if I play with your grandma she'll understand I'm a friend!" It's not ever really that simple, is it?
A little cheer and a very big smile at the talk about being a team now. "Yes! We are! Whatever we'll play together, I can't wait!"
Another moment passes as he has himself another bit of snackin', before looking up. "...Thanks for coming to the Atelier. I know it was scary and not all that fun for you, at first, but... thanks to you, I'm really looking forward to everything!" Everything except the hard questions that can't be solved - or perhaps may in fact be caused - by what he desires to do most.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"I bet," Hazuki says softly. "But... I don't think it's that easy. But maybe eventually! We'll figure it out, though. I promise."
She bites into her croissant, chewing as he thanks her. She swallows, "I'm glad I did. We met you, saved Nakata-kun, and... we're going to keep helping people like him. People who can't help themselves anymore."
A smile. "We have time to decide what that looks like as a team, but... this is a new chapter! We beat the arc boss... now we have to figure out what to do next. I have some leads, at least."
<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.
"Those Homunculi can't hide from me!" Roger snorts, an intense look on his face - surprisingly intense, given the playful (if, um, charitably less than homely) facial expressions he typically manages with his hard-won human guise that's all his own. "Though..."
He relaxes some. "When we go into any other Ateliers, I'm on the same hoofing as you are. But I'll put forth the best game I can for any other! Especially you!"
...A reinforcement of a growing bond.
<Pose Tracker> Hazuki Nakao has posed.
"...yeah!" Hazuki cheers back, intensely, before relaxing as well.
"Thank you, Roger. We couldn't have done any of this without you."
She can feel it inside. The bond growing... she wonders what exactly this destiny all means.
"Okay, let's finish! Once we're done, we'll find you somewhere to sleep. We have a lot ahead of us... but let's not rush ahead!"