2026-01-02: Pushed
- Cutscene: Pushed
- Cast: Ren Amamiya, Igor, Caroline and Justine
- Where: The Velvet Room
- OOC Date: 2026-01-02
- IC Date: Tue, Sep 04, 2012
- Summary: Ren works on fusing more and stronger Personas with the dubious help of their Velvet Room wardens. Perhaps their bond deepens a bit as a result...
There's something morbid about consigning aspects of your own psyche to execution, Ren reflects as they watch their twin guards pull the guillotine wires. They don't flinch when the blades shear through the shrouded Personas' necks, something that took them months to master. Igor calls it a rebirth, in essence saying it's not true death but transformation, but it still feels weird, even as the remains of their Personas streak into light and merge to form--
"I'm Setanta," the spear-wielding man in a scarf declares, empowered with a Rakukaja line spell. "If anyone dares bring you trouble, I'll gladly choke them to death."
He disperses into light, leaving behind a mask--Joker's mask. Ren feels it settle into their heart and breathes out faintly. Another part of their "penal labor" completed. Now to report it to the twins and get their reward... something that leaves them a little uneasy.
Sure, it's nice to get a reward for hard work. But that hard work is in service of... doing what they're told. Falling in line with authority.
Rehabilitation.
In other words, molding themself into the person society wants him to be.
Ren's dark eyes flick towards Igor at his desk, grinning his manic grin at them in their jail cell from the center of the room. As far as cells go, the Velvet Room is nicer than most--way nicer than the one they spent a few nights in back in their hometown. ...even if their prison stripes are grungier and more tattered than the clothes they wore back then, too.
They wonder, not for the first time, if there's something symbolic about that. Their prison in blue is elegant and immaculate, but they're stained in black and white.
They wonder what their friends would think if they saw him like this.
...Better not to find out.
They shake their head and clutch the chained bars. No point in addressing him, at least not right now. They'd asked Igor too about what it meant that some shadowy organization had deliberately, explicitly arranged for them to be transferred to a school terrorized by a Palace Holder.
It seems there are foes around you that you cannot yet even visualize. How concerning--and yet... heh heh heh... how will this contribute towards your rehabilitation? I look forward to seeing the fruits of your sincerest efforts, Igor had responded.
Against their better judgment, Ren had sniped back, Igor? More like Ignore.
Caroline had given their cell bars several brutal smacks for that; Justine, a withering glare and icy lecture.
Igor himself hadn't seemed all that offended, though, maybe because he had the twins to get offended for him. He'd simply chuckled again and, after standing the twins down, explained that while the three of them were overseeing their rehabilitation and granting them the tools to overturn the coming ruin, actually doing those things was up to Ren.
Which made sense, but didn't really help much. Ren had decided to drop it and focus on what they could do. Recently, that's involved focusing on the "penal labor" the twins had assigned them ages back. Flauros looks too much like a leopard-man to want to use him in battle after dealing with Shadow Eiji, and calling up Phoenix among The Phantoms would just get confusing now that codename: Phoenix has joined the team, but Setanta... Here is a Persona who can replace Ame-no-Uzume in the forefront of their heart.
They raise their cuffed hands and tap on the bars to get the twins' attention. After acknowledging that they'd completed their most recent task, Caroline actually smiles at them.
"Heh... I have to admit, I'm impressed, Inmate," she says with a hand on her hips, their slant somehow cocky. "I didn't think a whiner like you'd keep up with a non-mandatory labor. Good work--you're actually pretty interesting!"
"Thanks," Ren replies, deadpan, from where they now sit cross-legged on the floor, ankle chain trailing away to its iron ball.
"As is this list," Justine remarks, folding a page back on her clipboard. "As Caroline noted before, it's quite well thought out. The tasks are designed to push you toward achieving your goals while also measuring your true strength." She lifted her golden eyes to them in mild curiosity. "How well do you feel they're working, Inmate?"
Ren considers it. In all honesty? "I do feel pushed." And not in a bad way, even.
Justine offers them a faint smile too. "Then all is well."
"You sure have been getting pushed lately. Like with that nasty girl in the alleyway who kept insulting you," Caroline comments, folding her arms and tapping her baton on her shoulder. "You just stood there and took it. Pathetic!"
Ren side-eyes her and says nothing.
"Now, now... There is something to be said about keeping one's cool in the face of antagonism," Justine remarks, which is a pleasant surprise. An even better surprise comes when she seems to read their mind and adds, "For example, the antagonism of hypocrisy."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Caroline demands.
"Nothing. Merely that that you demand the Inmate stand there and take your insults as well."
"Th-that's different!! We're charged with overseeing his rehabilitation! This girl was just some random nobody who came up and picked a fight for no reason, and the Inmate just put up with it!"
Justine frowns faintly as she sighs. "Well, it is true that we have a responsibility for him..."
"See?! So don't act like it's the same!" Caroline scowls at Ren, but there's a glint of curiosity in her golden eyes. "Who was she, anyway? You didn't act like she was a stranger, thinking back."
"She was a classmate in my old school for a while." She's a classmate again in my current school, actually, Ren muses. "We don't like each other."
"Bad blood, huh? I see..." Caroline taps her baton on her shoulder a couple more times. "Then I guess I ought to compliment you. You did keep your cool and walk away without letting her bait you into a fight."
"Yes. Caroline would have great difficulty managing a similar feat," Justine adds.
"HEY!"
Ren smiles back. They don't know if the twins are doing it on purpose or not, but she does feel better, talking to them about it like this. "Thanks," she says, this time sincere.
"Hmph! D-don't let it get to your head, Inmate! Come on, Justine, let's give him the next task!" Caroline snaps, reaching out to yank up the next page on Justine's clipboard. When she sees what's on it, though, she freezes, eyes going wide. "Wh-what the... It feels like I've seen the writing on this list before..."
The conversation that follows is curious, and mostly leaves Ren out of the loop. Caroline recognizes the handwriting, but not from where; Justine, after reviewing some damningly tsundere notes from Caroline instead of the actual list, must concur that she too feels a concerning sense of déjà vu from the list; neither of them let Ren see the list when they ask. Ultimately, the purpose of the list, which was written by neither Igor nor either of them, remains a mystery.
The two of them are pretty good at moving on from that, though. For all that Caroline often seems hostile and Justine uncaring, they both clearly care about this, but also don't let it weigh them down. Ren privately admits they admire that about them.
Maybe that's what makes them feel more at ease about accepting their reward of Special Treatment from them afterwards. Now it feels less like falling in line with the demands of their twin wardens and more like... contributing towards solving that mystery with them.
...Even if paying an arm and a leg to create higher-level Personas doesn't feel like "Special Treatment" to them.
The next reward will take three more special fusions, or so the twins tell them. Ren doesn't jump to the next task, though. Instead, they work on other tasks--itemizing the Queen's Necklace they'd taken on as a mask in Eiji's Palace, fusing more Personas to fill out their compendium, and in particular fashioning stronger masks to fight in the forefront of their mind along with Arsene. Cait Sith is upgraded to Nekomata (for their soul, unlike (very much like) Morgana's, is a cat), and Angel is replaced by High Pixie (for while they've made up with Akechi, they're committed to Minako)... Ixtab gets to stay for now. A fusion accident as fortuitous as that isn't so easily repeated.
"Huh. You sure worked hard tonight, Inmate," Caroline remarks once they've wrapped up.
"Are you, perhaps, concerned for the future?" Justine wonders delicately.
Ren considers the both of them. They wouldn't normally be open about this sort of thing, especially not to his psychic prison guards, but after earlier... "...Yeah," they admit. They aren't going to talk about their parents--do the twins even have parents? do they even understand the concept of parents?--but there's one thing they'll understand. "If there's a shadowy conspiracy out there--and now we know there is--then The Phantoms aren't just righting the crooked hearts of random rotten adults; we're taking on an organization with a scope we don't fully grasp. We barely know their name: the New World Order. Beyond that... Akabane-san's terrified of them, and Tsubasa's life keeps getting ruined by them, and maybe the one in the black mask works for them if that's who has the Principal on their payroll, and that's about it."
"So you're scared about them taking you and your friends out?" Caroline asks, frowning.
Which would be a dangerous question, and is, but Ren decides to be honest and nod. "So we can't afford to rest on our laurels." They attempt to reach up to toy with a lock of their bangs; the shackles that bind their hands together stops that. "We changed Kamiya's heart, but if Akechi hadn't shown up to help us out, we might've gotten wiped out instead. And if Akechi is..." They trail off. "...I don't like the idea of relying on an enemy for help," they decide to say instead. "So we've got to get stronger. I've got to get stronger."
Tsubasa was right: Akechi's not nothing to them. But if he really is the Black Mask--hell, even if he isn't--they can't afford to let him have so much control of their feelings. Goodnight, sweet Prince; may the flight of Angel wing thee to thy rest.
...which would be a great line if Ren weren't fully planning on meeting up with Akechi at a special place to him tomorrow. Then again, they also can't afford to just shut him out, can they? It's the push and pull that continues to make their relationship as exciting as it is vexing.
The black and white, like kings on a chessboard.
"Your dedication to your rehabilitation is admirable," Justine comments with a faint smile. "Even when arrested by fear, you maintain your convictions and move forward. Perhaps you truly will overturn the coming ruin."
"Don't disappoint us! You made us have high expectations for you and everything!" Caroline adds with a toothy grin.
Once again, Ren smiles back. Is it weird to feel good to hear that when he's still in chains?
Caroline whacks the cell bars with her baton then--but lighter than usual; maybe even playfully. "Now get going!" she barks. "You've got a conspiracy to root out!"
"Until next time, Inmate..." Justine murmurs with eyes shut. Her words, and the structure of the Velvet Room prison, grow faint as Ren's consciousness recedes from the Velvet Room and returns to reality, just outside the door off Shibuya Central Street.