2026-02-08: A Step Closer To Resolution
- Log: 2026-02-08 A Step Closer To Resolution
- Cast: Pernelle, Yanagi Nagisa, Rin Sasaki
- Where: Peacock Silk, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo
- OOC Date: February 08, 2026
- IC Date: Saturday, September 22, 2012
- Summary: Rin comes to Peacock Silk to get answers about Homunculi, Ateliers, and why her husband Kenzo was targeted. She gets both nonsensical screams (to her ears, anyway) and straightforward answers--and some strong encouragement to risk her life and safety for more.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
There are many rumors that surround Peacock Silk, but can any truly prepare one's entry into the stylish boutique, like slipping into a new world to awaken one's own inner actualization?
Can such rumors prepare anyone for the actual, factual, maximal aesthetical animal that serves its mascot?
Pernelle submits that they cannot!
To curl around to the true entrance and pass into the interior is to gain his immediate attention. Pernelle hops from one perch to the next, the wooden rungs providing several heights for which he can discern the past altitude for his judgment. He begins at the highest, then down. Down. Down. Down, each hop punctuated with a vocalization.
"And. Who. Is. This?!"
... Until he finds himself eye level with their newest perhaps-customer, neck outstretched and head twisting to one side in an uncanny stare. His head turns completely to the side so that his side-situated eyes -- or at least one of them -- can focus entirely on who would dare cross his domain.
Abruptly, he straightens up, wings outstretched and flapping as he cries.
"Reveal to me, dearest customer, your vision! Kill your hesitations and arrest your trepidation! You stand in the halls of creation! LET US BEGIN YOUR SYNTHESIS!"
...........
To those without supernatural awareness, what this sounds like is a great big ol' scream of 'EEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!' that goes on for too many seconds too long.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Who could ever be prepared for the glory that is Pernelle the Peacock? No amount of rumors or supernatural experience will ever amount to his in-person (in-peacock?) grace and beauty! And Yanagi, for one, is honored to be able to live with him.
When Rin arrives at Peacock Silk, the first off-putting thing may be that the door that enters to the street is locked, and a sign bids her go to the side entrance instead. The second is this gorgeous bird SCREAMING AT HER NON-STOP the moment she enters.
The third might be the pale-haired young woman, sitting next to the jewelry display at a station with jewelry-making tools, dressed in a pale green silken drape with pearl-white ruffled skirt and matching mother-of-pearl hair clips, earrings and necklace. She sits up and away from her current project, claps her hands, and bursts into joyous laughter the moment Rin's accosted. A polished walking stick hangs from the side of her station.
"Wonderful, wonderful! Yes, do come in and show us what you're made of, so we may grind you down and help you build yourself up anew!" Yanagi chirps cheerfully, essentially translating the spirit of Pernelle's screams.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
It is not an easy thing -- to slowly come to terms with the idea that the world is not quite as simple, not quite as fully governed by physical law and mundane materialism as Rin Sasaki had spent her entire life believing. And it would certainly be more pleasant to believe that the manner in which the unnatural has intruded into her life was simply a product of her imagination.
But she cannot and she does not, and there are questions to which she desires answers -- and thrice now she has been told that Peacock Silk is where she will find the experts on matters of the supernatural that are most pressing to her. There has been no consensus on their general reputation, but opinions on their expertise have remained consistent.
Rin Sasaki is a thin woman in her late twenties; a soft, narrow face, pale skin, and styled, wavy black hair that frames and her face and spills freely down her back. She is wearing a long flowing black skirt, a silky deep burgundy top and black heels. Glittering earrings, a diamond wedding ring on one hand and three silver rings on the other. A small, decorative purse over one shoulder. Despite the faint exhaustion in her eyes to the perceptive, she is put together, she is confident, she is ready to speak on the supernatural without secondguessing herself this time or --
Rin shrieks out of sheer startlement as she crosses the threshhold as her senses are immediately assaulted by the resident peacock screaming and flapping its wings directly into her face because that is just simply not at all even slightly what her tired mind was ready for when she stopped into Shimokitazawa's hottest boutique. Yanagi's laughter follows directly on the heels of this moment, and this at least is less of a surprise after her conversation with Tamaki.
A bit of nervous laughter escapes her as her mind catches up and clarifies that no, she is in fact not under attack. She may even be smiling just faintly because... "Oh! But aren't you just gorgeous, she says to the peacock, in the tone that some might use when speaking to an adorable animal. If it wasn't already, it is abundantly clear that she did not actually parse a single word it said. "I heard you were the big bad bouncer for the establishment. Well. I won't give you any trouble if you want me to leave."
Her attention shifts to Yanagi afterwards, gaze scanning the interior of the store as she does. "That is...quite the introduction," she says, her tone more level here. But perhaps SUDDEN PEACOCK had a positive impact, because she's quite forgotten to be nervous about what she's going to say next. "I was told that you are the experts here on Homunculus and Ateliers." Because the wares on display are also gorgerous, but not what occupies her mind at this time.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Rin shrieks, startled.
Pernelle flinches from her scream, startled in kind.
Now Yanagi hears the same sound Rin does, that unbridled "EEEEEYAWWWWW?!" straight from Pernelle's remarkably powerful lungs. This second scream lasts for as long as Rin's own does... and a little bit more, as a bonus.
In his silence, he is left blinking, like this has never happened to him before. (It has happened to him several times before.)
A much smaller squawk leaves his mouth, testing the conversational waters to make sure they don't all need to start screaming again. But no, no, instead, Pernelle receives the most wonderful bribe of all: praise.
Her tone might be perceived an insult by most sapient beings. Consider, however: Pernelle. Immediately, he puffs himself up, ruffling his feathers just so they can smooth themselves out. "Just so!" he agrees. "Leave? Heavens strike me down should I ever entertain for a moment sending away a woman of impeccable taste as yours!"
Pernelle hops down to ground level in a short glide and begins tippy-tapping his clawed feet at Rin's side, looking her up and down before inspecting her in pacing half circles.
"Let us see here, let us see. Ah, Yanagi, this one appears to adorn agreeably with your particular realm of expertise! How auspicious!"
Mercifully, he realizes the conversation is continuing without him about the time Rin mentions Homunculus and Ateliers. Pernelle stops mid step, one of his feet stuck outstretched in front of him, and beak falling open before it shuts. He twists his head to look at Rin from a contorted angle, then looks at Yanagi.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
For a moment, there is naught but SCREME. Yanagi only laughs even harder, wiping a tear or two from the corners of her eyes. At least Rin passes the first test: acknowledging that Pernelle is a handsome little man.
"Oh, don't worry at all, he won't hurt a feather on your head! But he might well escort you off the premises if you displease him..." Yanagi remains cheerful despite the fact that this is not in any way a reassurance that Rin is welcome here.
She at least seems stylish enough for Peacock Silk, for all that its employees are a bunch of weirdos. Pernelle praises her jewelry in particular, and Yanagi nods in smiling agreement. They are certainly skilled--their reputation might vary, but that does not, as Rin has already heard. It's very good for her that she's startled into forthrightness, because that means she won't be escorted anywhere but further inside.
"Oh! Yes, that's true," Yanagi replies, blinking widely at Rin's confident statement. "Who did you hear that from? Was it Hazuki? Or perhaps--was it Tamaki?" She claps her hands together and leans forward, lead-gray eyes sparkling. "Oh!! Are you Tamaki's mystery client? The one having trouble with her--what was it? Not a friend, I remember--a lover? Your spouse, perhaps?" She looks down again at her wedding ring and nods, this time with certainty. "If you need us to rid you of your Homunculus, we can certainly do that for you and would even if you hadn't asked! Come in, come in!"
Yanagi gestures at Rin enthusiastically to come over to her station. She, too, is thin--unhealthily so, in her hips and legs, but since she's sitting, Rin won't be able to see that right away. It's her upper limbs that count, anyway, and those are doing just fine for now. See how her pastel make-up is gently applied with a steady hand.
"Pernelle, why don't you flap up here and join us?" she then suggests, gesturing for the jewelry case next to her. "I'm sure our client would love to get a better look at you while we're talking!" Rin might not be Awakened--Yanagi, as a Navigator, can sense her lack of telltale Resonance--but Peacock Silk never turns away anyone with Homunculus woes.
AS: Yanagi Nagisa has readied for combat as Giselle! She is now fully healed!
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin was not informed that the peacock is sapient. She was informed that she might be chased from the premises by it for the crime of being unawakened -- or it might not. (She assumes that this is done at the behest of the operators of the establishment; how does one train a peacock?) It seemed worth the trip, regardless.
Rin enters further into the establishment once the screaming is done and she has had a good look at Pernelle, stepping carefully as he makes his pacing half-circles at her feet. She neither wants to trip over nor step on the bird, and his erratic movements at ground level make her a little nervous.
"Yes, both -- and a third besides," Rin answers to the question of referral as she draws closer to Yanagi's workstation. She glances about for a nearby seat she might be able to take, but otherwise will remain standing. "My husband," she provides further as Yanagi casts about for the memory of her relationship to the infected. That Tamaki was here and touched briefly on her situation sheds a little light on something that detective referenced in their previous conversation, and the switch in how she spoke of the Homunculus.
Rin smiles thinly when the topic of ridding the Homunculus is raised. "Any help is very much appreciated. I was told the last Homunculus was -- something of an ordeal, and of course there is little more that I can do myself." Beat. "The activated Thread is currently with Uchida-san, but I wondered if you would be willing to answer a few questions?"
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle really ought to be considering Rin's removal, given she does not understand him. His train should be raised, full and beautiful, as the last thing she will ever witness -- within Peacock Silk itself, at least, before she is escorted off by bird, whose movements suggest he has not forgotten he is descended from dinosaurs.
This does not happen because she called him adorable.
It doubly does not happen because she said a couple of other of magic words now. Yanagi explains how this contradiction of not awake but knowing Ateliers might be, and Pernelle brightens. "Ah! So that must be how it is, wisest Yanagi!" He scurries over toward her. "You can even identify someone's relationship contracts through their adornments? Yanagi, you never cease to amaze me."
If anyone's explained marriage to the peacock yet, he might not have completely paid attention.
Invited to join them, Pernelle readily flaps up onto Yanagi's station, graceful in his landing and the way his feet step to the surface. "I would be delighted!" His is acutely aware of every feather, brushing off not so much as a single bead from Yanagi's workplace.
He is 'well trained', indeed.
... But he is staring at one of them, beginning to vibrate with hunger.
Rin's talk of Threads knocks him out of it. "You know about Threads!" Pernelle cries in intrigue. Then pauses and looks to Yanagi, remembering who can actually hear him here. "She knows about Threads!"
At least his chatter no longer sounds like bellows and squawking screams, but instead a series of coos and clicks.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Pernelle trots over to Yanagi to praise her! She giggles in response, her pale cheeks rosy. "It is how it is!" Rin herself will confirm it in just a moment!
"Ooh! Who's the third?" Yanagi wonders, eyes still bright. There are some nearby plush seats for those trying on shoes; Yanagi's own chair is on wheels, and she can push herself over to them with the help of her walking stick.
That's only if Rin takes the initiative to sit a ways over from her station, though. If she stands, Yanagi merely looks up at her from where she is.
She nods again when Rin confirms it's her husband who's been parasitized. "They generally are," she says matter-of-fact. Just as matter-of-fact, she continues, "Hazuki and Tamaki are both new to Ateliers, and quite probably your third person as well. You, of course, would die if you tried to fight one as you are now."
The operative words naturally being as you are now. Rin already has an idea of what that means, doesn't she?
"Certainly! As long as you're willing to answer some of our questions as well. If you are, then ask away!" She nods confidently at Pernelle. "She knows about Threads!" (She sees him staring at the beads at her station, not a single one of which he knocked off when he flapped up to her workstation--so it's for everyone's good that they talk about Threads.) "What else do you know so far?" she asks, looking back at Rin.
"And what's your name?" she adds as an afterthought. She offers her hand. "I'm Yanagi Nagisa. This is Pernelle! Isn't he precious? He'll shake wings with you if you give him a treat!" She smiles sunnily at the peacock. "Won't you, Pernelle?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin remains standing. The distance of the available seating seems more of an inconvenience than otherwise.
"Yeo-san at the Cardboard Dragon," Rin replies at the question of the third. It wasn't a direct statement, but she noticed then how highly they spoke of Peacock Silk's expertise in matters of Homunculus. "Who was actually the very first I spoke to on these matters, after --" She stops, stumbling now on her own words. There's a moment of silence as she tries to recover herself again, a distant, haunted look in her eyes. Pernelle coos and clicks are a pleasant little distraction, and despite herself, she smiles faintly as she briefly glances down at the bird.
"After I found something that was not my husband in our bed, yet wearing his face," she finishes. A single shiver passes through her slender frame. It is not a pleasant memory. But there is nonetheless a certainty there in what she experienced.
"So I have been told..." she murmurs regarding death. Not that Yanagi's phrasing of it isn't the most direct and blatant thus far; it is, but she appreciates the forthrightness. She hesitates, considering whether to bring up Ayame's offer right this moment, but decides to hold that question for the time being -- even as it eats at her more than it should. It should have been dismissed out-of-hand.
"But if there is a direct path to Awakening, thus far no one has either been able to or willing to speak on it," she settles for, instead.
Willing to answer their questions? "Of course." What does she know. This is a harder thing, and Rin smiles a little wanly. "I'm not certain that I can say I know much of anything, this all still feels very surreal, but -- I have been told of Personas, Shadows, Demons, the Dark Hour, rumors becoming reality, that the Homunculus is a psychic parasite that supplants the host personality, that the Atelier is a sort of...mindscape, and that at least the previous one required a period of exploration before the Homunculus could be confronted in its.....sanctum?" It's been a little while now and she doesn't have her notes. "And the requirements of the Thread in order to access the Atelier."
"Yeo-san was also kind enough to summon their Persona for me when I requested a measure of proof." Which may go some way to explain why she's oddly confident in speaking on these matters. "It was -- difficult to look at but it was..." She pauses as if fishing for the right words. A measure of glittering rapture lights up her eyes as she recalls that night. "Breathtaking."
The moment passes. "Rin Sasaki," she introduces herself. "My husband is Kenzo Sasaki." Attention is brought back down to what must certainly be the world's most adorable peacock. Rin can't help but smile a little, despite the nature of the rest of the conversation. "He is." Beat. "Well, Pernelle-chan," she address him directly in the same tone as before. "I'm afraid I don't have anything on me. Will you accept a promise of treats in the future?" she asks.
Then, a glance back to Yanagi, tone level again. "But aside from being a -- psychic parasite, what is a Homunculus? What does it want? Where does it come from?" Her expression darkens a little. There is the faintest amount of pleading in her tone, as if she needs the world to make a little more sense. "Why -- out of all the people in Tokyo -- why my husband?"
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
As a peacock, Pernelle cannot smile back at Rin, precisely, but his attention is keenly on her in a way most animals don't exercise the focus for.
But the beads. The beads! What if he had a taste? Just a tiny taste of bead? Devouring them like little candies? WHAT IF? But no. No! This would derail the whole conversation! Pernelle must be strong! Brave! The bravest!! He forgets about that promptly, to his and everyone's mercy.
Instead, the conversation. Pernelle gasps (it sounds a bit more like a startled click to Rin) as she mentions the Homunculus in her bed. "To invade the sanctity of your nest! She has already endured too much! Yanagi, I shall peck out its eyes!"
He stomps his clawed foot and squawks, then brightens. "She speaks as if she would Awaken were the path set before her! To step valiantly into the waking world! To claw her mate from a Cocoon with her own hands! Marvelous."
Indeed, Rin's words continue to describe someone with the determination to face the unknown... and to have found beauty in it. His own eyes are sparkling. But Yanagi is calling him precious. Pernelle is positively beaming, and gives Rin a curt nod (did a peacock just nod??) of confirmation.
"I would steal the very stars for as grand an experience as the powerful treat!" Pause. Pernelle slowly begins to extend his wing forward, only partway. "But if you should only humbly beseech a touch of my resplendent wing, this, too, can be easily arranged. I have it under good authority that I am soothingly soft."
He knows she cannot hear him and yet he keeps talking like he has forgotten this (he has, momentarily, forgotten this).
Rin, alas, does not have treats, and Pernelle wilts. His pupils engulf his eyes, round and large and pleading, as if he could will her to manifest treats in the way pets seem to lack understanding for such limitations of reality. There can only be a promise of future treats, and Pernelle ruffles back up, less forlorn.
"I do accept!" he chirps cheerfully, which is more literal for Rin. But for all that Pernelle must be admired, Rin has more grim questions on her mind... and one very important one.
"A fantastic pair of inquiries, and one that may well give insight into the other! Imagine, if you will, this husband of yours, standing at a crossroads --" Pernelle stops. He has unforgotten his momentary forgottenness. "Oh. Hm."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
One day, Pernelle will be able to feast upon beads...! But that day is not today.
"Oh, Myunghon! Of course, I should have known! They have very good information." And, as Yanagi had thought, they too are someone who's new to Homunculi and Ateliers. She'd also answered their questions, along with Hazuki's and Tamaki's. Her bright smile fades into a sympathetic look when Rin speaks of her husband--or rather, not her husband, one day all of a sudden in bed with her. "It is terrible," she comments to Pernelle. To peck out its eyes, though--she smiles. "All in due time~."
But then Rin says something extra interesting--something marvelous, as Pernelle puts it. That is, if Rin truly understands the risks. Yanagi taps a fingertip on her cheek. "Hmm... I don't think there's an easy, direct way to Awaken. You probably always have to risk your life in one way or another. That's the price for the power you receive. Which makes sense; why do you need power if you're ignorant of the things you'd need to use it on?" she muses. "But that's not something I'm universally informed on. I only know what I've seen."
In fairness, Yanagi has seen a lot.
She lowers her hand to look at and listen to Rin, nodding every so often as she reviewed what she's told. "The Thread and the Eye," she says, "but yes, that's normally what you need." She tilts her head at the news that Myunghon summoned their Persona for her... an interesting move. She'll have to remember that. Of course, to do that, she'd need to take Rin or a similar unAwakened person into a supernatural space, and often the trauma of it erases their memory...
...which would seem to imply that Rin has the potential to Awaken. Maybe is even on the verge of it. Yanagi raises her hands to her lips and smiles. "Personas are breathtaking," she agrees.
She smiles fondly at Rin and Pernelle's exchange. Even if Rin is, in her own mind, simply baby-talking to Pernelle, Yanagi finds it endearing. "He says that, if you ask very nicely, you may touch his wing anyway," she informs her. "The treat may come another day." And indeed, Pernelle does appear to be holding out his wing, but only partway... Not to mention he withers, and then recovers, based on Rin's treat status. It's like he really does understand her. How curious!
"Rin and Kenzo Sasaki. Got it! It's lovely to meet you, Rin," she says, jumping to the extremely familiar first-name-no-suffix without batting an eyelash. This is normal for Yanagi, as Rin will find. She smiles at Pernelle as he starts to answer, then stops, and pats his beautiful head.
"We aren't really fully sure where they come from--only that they enter a person through their Atelier," she explains instead. "As for what they are, they're... hmmm. A Shadow that isn't you, but which was attracted by the cracks in your psyche and come to sneak in through them and use your skin as a cloak for a life they couldn't have." Why her husband, though? "You could probably tell me better than I could tell you. Most people won't ever get parasitized; they've got too much of a sense of self for a Homunculus to take advantage. But for people who have been traumatized, either recently or over a long period of time--people who've undergone horrible experiences that leave them feeling like they don't know who they are anymore--the Homunculus comes. They wrap themselves in a 'self' that their victim could have been and claim their body little by little until the host is gone forever."
She tilts her head at Rin. "What bad thing happened to Kenzo? And what unexplored self is the Homunculus projecting?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
It takes to the second or third time, but Rin is starting to notice that Yanagi keeps responding as if Pernelle said something. Which might almost be taken as some eccentric bit of theater by one of the operators of a boutique that proudly markets itself on its eccentricities (and its shockingly well-trained peacock), but there is also something distinctly odd about the way the peacock rests its attention on her. Whatever she may or may have learned about peacocks in school as a child is certainly long gone from her memory, but...
Or perhaps she's simply overly primed right now to expect the strange and the supernatural. She did spend much of the morning pouring over Tamaki's curated notes again (which of course included her rather stark 'wtf???' regarding Roger -- supposedly, some sort of mindscape inhabitant that supposedly crossed over to the waking world to take the guise of a human).
"Aww, noo, don't give me that look," is what she says to Pernelle because really, who knew a peacock could present such a perfect image of forlorn pleading? "I do promise; next time." An aside to Yanagi. "What does he like most?" Which is primarily a question because she hasn't the slightest idea what a peacock might like, and certainly not what they can and cannot eat. It certainly wouldn't do to accidentally bring something toxic for the world's cutest bird!
As Pernelle's wing is half-extended, she will offer a hand out, palm up invitingly, but will otherwise allow the animal ('animal') to approach closer or not. And it's when Yanagi speaks again ('he says that...'), and the peacock rises and falls on her own words, that Rin decides to pose a different question, canting her head just slightly to the side. "Do you mean figuratively, or...literally?" It's a more direct question than she would normally be comfortable with, but then again, she's been spending a good deal of time trying to wrap her mind around some very strange things.
There's a visible flicker of startlement in Rin's face when Yanagi directly uses her first name. In many other circumstances, she might actually call attention to it -- but in this moment, the social overstep is both the least interesting and least important item right now.
She listens attentively as Yanagi answers her questions, her expression progressively darkening further. There is a marked silence when Yanagi turns questions back to her, and she seems at first as if she might not respond at at all. "I don't know if he ever wanted anything more in the world than to be a father, to have a family..." she begins quietly, abruptly. A wan, pained smile. "I have never met a man light up a room like he did when I tested positive the first time." A little bit of fondness in her eyes as she considers the memory. "Although it did require a rather abrupt wedding..."
Her voice is muted and a little distant, as if the easiest way to speak on it herself is to remove herself a little from it. "Three miscarriages -- two of which were in the second term." Three sequentially is uncommon. Miscarriage that late is also uncommon. "The doctors -- for all their testing -- could never functionally tell us anything. Or at least not anything useful." She doesn't intend it, but she bleeds bitterness in her voice here. "Each time was...hard on him," she continues, pointedly not speaking on how it might have been for herself. "And then, um. Last year. Our fourth, um."
She turns away and falls silent again. Despite her best efforts, her eyes are wet and her voice wavers. "He died right after birth..." Rin immediately draws a long breath and does her best to steady herself. It isn't especially effective, but continues to be deeply unhappy how, even in passing, this topic keeps arising with complete strangers. So she tries her absolute best to push right past the moment. "Kenzo hasn't been the same since. Took on as many extra responsibilities at work as he could to avoid being home. And...listless and distant when he was."
"I left after that first night. I didn't have the words to describe the Homunculus at the time, but I knew that I couldn't exist under the same roof as that...thing. But when I have spoken to our family, our friends -- or, I suppose, when I've finally picked up the phone, because by now they all want to know why I've effectively abandoned my home..." This is a topic that agitates her, and her best efforts are not enough to mask it. "They all think 'he's' better! 'He's' confident again! 'He' has his charming, outgoing disposition again! For the first time in a year-and-a-half, 'he's' at family dinners again! That's all I hear, when they're not-so-subtly suggesting I've taken leave of my senses!"
"How?" Her gaze snaps back to Yanagi. There's an intensity in her eyes and once more a need for the world to make sense. She is openly losing the composure she tried so hard to maintain. "How!? How can anyone interact with that...that creature --" hatred bleeds through on the word "-- and believe it to be Kenzo? His own mother, the woman who gave birth to him -- is simply over the moon that 'he's' reached out again!" Eyes wild, chest rising and falling like bellows with her agitated breathing, Rin seems to finally realize herself and brings one hand to her mouth, suddenly quiet.
"I am...very sorry, Nagisa-san. It has been a very long several weeks."
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
"Myunghon fed me a car once!" Pernelle adds to this conversation, which does not help because Rin cannot hear him, and because it is entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand.
Thankfully, Yanagi is available to translate some of the more relevant matters, such as the ritual of a wing shake, which most assuredly grants good luck and happiness. It must be true, because Pernelle has decided it, right now, in his own mind.
Being discouraged from giving Rin that look only makes it worse! Until it gets better, as swiftly as Pernelle had wilted to begin with. What does he like, she asks! Pernelle's feathers fluff up like he is about to first.
"Oh! Oh! Please tell her, Yanagi!" He is bobbing up and down in place now. He still does not knock over any of Yanagi's materials or tools, even in such excitement.
But the promise is made, and it is enough for Pernelle to finally unfurl his wing in full as Rin reaches out for it. Without all of that flapping, it is easier to see how orange and brown mixes in with his jewel greens and blues. And the edges of his pinions... so soft! Pernelle is thankfully meticulous in his grooming.
Sometimes that involves glitter. But not today!
"And so... our contract is sealed."
That's probably fine.
When Yanagi reaches over to pat Pernelle's head, Pernelle easily leans toward her without looking to receive it, even as he squints into the space directly in front of him. He cannot give a Tutorial here. The unfairness! Ah, but speak of unfairness, and a crueler one begins to show itself.
Pernelle goes quiet -- even in the cooing and clicking sense -- as Rin tells her story. If she sees him as but a pet, that is perhaps to his advantage in this one particular moment, for the comfort provided by such friendly beasts is a known thing to even Pernelle. He hops down from the counter so that he may shuffle up against her leg to provide what he hopes is a faint but comforting pressure, looking up at her with those unusually intelligent eyes.
Even if it is only coos and clicks of a peacock, he still hopes his tone will carry in the same way it works in reverse.
"It is all right. Stifle not your anger nor your tears, for they come from a great love."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Fried potatoes. Especially tater tots!" Yanagi says promptly, even before Pernelle encourages her to tell. That encouragement is met with a giggle and a fond look, before she continues, "But really, he'll eat anything. He'll eat these beads if I let him!" She gestures down to the gem beads on her work station. Is this a gizzard thing? Eating stones to aid with digestion...?
(It is not. Yanagi doesn't even give Pernelle a look when he announces Myunghon fed him a car. This is VERY normal for him.)
But Rin asks if she is being figurative, or... "Literally," Yanagi replies, again promptly. She smiles again, just as fondly, when Pernelle is be-petted. Surely that is a great comfort to Rin...!
Either way, that answers that, then. Unless she's messing with her--but she looks quite matter-of-fact, like she did only a moment ago, as opposed to when she was giggling when Rin first entered the boutique.
She falls silent when Rin talks about her three miscarriages and one dead infant, and how hard they were on Kenzo. Yanagi does note that Rin says nothing about how it felt for herself, but then, Yanagi did ask about what bad thing happened to Kenzo, not to her. If he was excited to be a father with her, then it does make sense that he might have a crisis of self after losing four potential children. He might have been considering if it would be impossible to have children with Rin, if perhaps he might have to leave the woman he presumably loves to become a father...
But Rin isn't done. As she continues, this time on Kenzo's Homunculus and their social circle's reaction to him, she gets increasingly more agitated. Yanagi takes her intensity and rising voice with aplomb--not so much as a batted eyelash. When at last Rin reins herself in and apologizes, tears in her eyes and despairing rage in her voice, Yanagi gives her a small smile.
"Do you want the people you love to suffer and wallow in misery?" she asks quietly. "You wouldn't, would you? That's what it means to love someone: you wish for their happiness. For someone who can't do anything to alleviate that suffering especially, it's easy to be fooled by that sort of change. It's what you wanted for them anyway." Her dark eyes flick down, her smile wan. "Those are the chains that love casts around us."
But then she shrugs. "So don't bother blaming them for their ignorance." Don't bother, she says, like it's a pointless effort. "It doesn't matter what they think, anyway. You know. You are the one who can do something about it." She smiles. "Well--you can hire someone to do something about it on your behalf." A nod to Pernelle as he hops down and nuzzles Rin's leg with words of comfort. Perhaps the sentiment will get across, even if the words themselves cannot. "As I said, we'll happily take care of your Homunculus issue for you, for a very reasonable price. Just let us have whatever we find in the Atelier."
In other words, for free. ...Or at least, that's how it might sound, considering Rin would have no way of knowing the value of the cognitive materials inside an Atelier. As a businesswoman, though, maybe she'll get that vibe anyway. It is part of their own business.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
Rin has clearly been willing to tentatively believe -- if not more outlandish things than a peacocks whose coos and clicks and screams are actually words to those that can hear them, than certainly approximately as. Her original question of proof to Myunghon was a demonstration of the Dark Hour, after all, an entire hour that exists for only the elect few, but simply passes the rest of the world by in the breath between seconds.
"Then I am very sorry, Pernelle-chan, that I am unable to hear you properly," Rin says, looking directly at the peacock, after several seconds to digest Yanagi's words and decide if she is going to make the conscious decision to believe her or not. (She does, because, really, the worst that can happen is that the jeweller takes a cheap laugh at her expense, which doesn't even register on the 'bad things that have happened recently' meter). Her tone is more level and quite sincere, even if she can't entirely keep the lilting playful tone of speaking to an adorable animal out of her voice (because he is so, so adorable).
Later, as she finishes her unintended ranting and he presses up against her leg and looks up with strangely-intelligent eyes, she drops down to his level for just a moment. "You are just the sweetest, aren't you," she murmurs, and -- despite what has already been established about the peacock that speaks -- she will, unless he interrupts her or otherwise expresses his displeasure at the idea, simply scoop him up into her arms as she rises to her feet. (Whether she is successful in this or not, it gives her a moment to try and collect herself again).
"I would settle for them keeping their opinions of my actions to themselves," she responds quietly, but a little harshly, when Yanagi asks if she wants them to wallow in misery. She casts her gaze to the ground, and will absently scritch Pernelle with manicured nails IF she was previously successful in collecting him. "Then, perhaps the better question is -- why did I know that something was wrong?" she finally asks, a little pensively. "I have never felt anything like that in my life, like there was Something Else there. Like being hunted..." Perhaps the real question is -- what terrible creatures has she walked past, blithely oblivious and ignorant, offering a friendly smile to something that is not a man pretending at being one.
It bothers her.
She looks back to Yanagi when the latter brings the conversation back to matters of the practical. There have been two other people she was willing to pay, but either declined or charged the barest minimum; practically offering charity. "You say 'let you' as if I could otherwise stop you," she murmurs, still feeling out of her depths with these matters. But this price does pique her curiosity a little. She cants her head a little, curiosity piqued. "What sorts of -- 'things?'" Cognitive materials is not at all a subject that has been broached. A slight frown. "Does removing them from the Atelier cause any harm?" This seems to be her main concern. (Of course, it is obvious in Yanagi's words that they stand to personally benefit in some way. She has all the motivation to give a dishonest answer here if there would be harm, and Rin is not unaware of that).
Otherwise, it's not as if she wouldn't take such a deal even if she did have an actual understanding of the value of the 'things' removed. There is not a price that can be effectively placed on something so priceless as returning her husband to her, returning her home and life to her.
But now, she has one final question. The question that has been gnawing at her ever since it was planted in her mind. There is a slight tremble as she speaks on this, but she does her best to keep her voice level. "I was...presented with an offer, recently. Another Awakened I had met previously, who was not familiar with Homunculus, per se, but did recognize that something was very Wrong with my husband. She offered the help of herself and her allies." And this time, she does not speak names, even to mention that it was an associate of Tamaki's.
A pause, a long breath. "She...also offered that I could -- come along, if I wished. That they would protect me to the best of their ability but could make no promises." Beat. A little more trembling now. "I know...I know that it is an irrational idea, but I can't..." It almost seems as if she's still determining how she feels about the offer herself. "All of this -- phantasms and monsters and and hours that should not exist and psychic parasites. It is --" She laughs a little shakily. "It is quite the update to my understanding of the world and I think...with the offer on the table, I might want... I need to see it for myself," she corrects herself abruptly, more firmly.
Eyes to Yanagi. "If you are willing to answer one more question, Nagisa-san. What is your opinion on such an idea?"
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Yanagi knows Pernelle so well! He tippy taps in place to have his favorite food relayed, and does not object in word or in action that he'll pretty much eat anything. Even the beads.
Rin apologizes, and Pernelle shakes his head. "Do not apologize to me. It is you who suffers most from your inability to listen to my wondrous voice." Pause, again. "Yanagi, you must explain the vastness of the void that surely plagues her heart...!"
Nobody has to do that.
But where his words may not reach her, his intentions do! Even being scooped, which Pernelle easily allows with a dainty curl of his legs to keep them from being unruly. "Oh, I do give it my best, I suppose!" he comments of sweetness while it happens, which is simply more animal cooing. He is only about ten pounds, and thus no heavier than scooping up your average cat. And then Pernelle uses his long neck to rest his head over her shoulder.
He has assumed the form of Emotional Support Peacock, and receives scritches for his efforts. Was such a reward part of his evil plot all along...?! Well, no. He didn't really think that far ahead.
"There, there," he says. "As dearest Yanagi says, such a foe is not beyond us." But the value of such things? Pernelle stage whispers to Yanagi. "Do not tell her how good they taste! It would only introduce a moral dilemma, and she is already distraught!"
Nobody has to do that.
Rin has a final question, rooted in that shining determination of hers. Pernelle turns to meet Yanagi's gaze.
"I should very much like to see what happens with that, wouldn't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Rin does take all this in stride, doesn't she? Yanagi appreciates that of her. For as distraught as this experience is making her, she has strength of heart and character. It's quite promising!
"That does sound annoying," Yanagi says with sympathy of how she has to deal with their opinions. "Block their calls until this is over, then." (If only it were so simple...! Well, for Yanagi, it is that simple. Excise the unwanted without mercy.)
Rin scoops Pernelle up! Yanagi knows him well enough to know he'll go along with it; he's taken a ride a time or twenty in her hood when she's worn hooded garments in the past. Pernelle is very good at being held and cuddled and carried. Yanagi giggles to see the two together. "He says you needn't apologize. You're the one who suffers for being unable to hear his wondrous voice," she tells Rin, matter-of-fact.
But the way she could sense the Homunculus right away... "You normally shouldn't. At least, not as strongly as a Persona User would," she muses, giving Rin a thoughtful look. "A normal person ought to get only a vague sense of something being off. To react as the way it sounds like you are... It might mean you have the Potential to become a Persona User." Which would make her very valuable to a certain type. Yanagi doesn't mention that part. "Or perhaps it's because you're so close to Kenzo, you knew instinctively that something was off? You say even his mother didn't realize, but if they haven't been in touch, perhaps the suddenness of the change was accepted as the consequence of their time apart."
Yanagi does laugh when Rin points out that she could not actually stop Peacock from doing as they will in Kenzo's Atelier. "True! But we'd like to have friendly relations with a potential customer like you." In other words, she's willing to pretend that they wouldn't take action if Rin told them not to. But why would Rin want them not to? Well--if removing those items from the Atelier might cause harm, she might. But fortunately: "Nope! Ateliers and other supernatural spaces have all sorts of odd, fascinating items in them, often brimming with magic power. They're extremely useful for making all sorts of things, including the clothes and accessories we make here. Ateliers in particular have a powerful material that's very useful for making armor, called filum regium. It's harvested from the Cocoon at the heart of an Atelier where the host is, shall we say, being digested after a Homunculus takes over. The host's Shadow needs to be removed from it anyway as part of the process of eradicating the Homunculus, so taking it doesn't cause them any harm at all."
Pernelle urges her not to mention how delicious certain things found in Ateliers taste. Yanagi giggles again and does indeed not share this.
However... Rin was presented an offer. Yanagi listens with curious eyes, and nods every so often to signal her attention. That thoughtful look remains when Rin ultimately asks for her opinion.
"If you're willing to risk your life, then it could pay incredible dividends. Awakening to a Persona happens in response to a supernatural stressor. If you have the Potential, that could be precisely what you need to Awaken to a Persona of your own. However, even if you do, if a Shadow or Humor gets to you first, you might get killed before you can. Really, even having a Persona, you might still get killed. Which means your bodyguards might also get killed." A beat. "What's more, it doesn't sound to me like that 'need' has anything to do with your husband's wellbeing. It sounds like something you want solely for yourself."
She smiles, eyes sparkling, as she leans forward. Her eyes meet Pernelle's first. "Oh, yes, indeed," she agrees with relish. Her gaze moves to meet Rin's next. "So if you don't fear the death of yourself or others, Rin, by all means, do it!"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Sasaki has posed.
"Perhaps I will, at that," she murmurs, regarding blocking calls. It is not the first time she has grown weary of their unrequested opinions. (Pregnancy tends to bring a cavalcade of well-meaning, but contradictory and oft flatly incorrect opinions and advise. Not all bad, of course, but enough to strain her ability to smile and nod and choke back the words she really wants to speak. And all the moreso when things go wrong...)
"And perhaps I am..." she murmurs a second time with the faintest of smiles, still scritching the Emotional Support Peacock, when Yanagi translates (or ostensibly translates) that Pernelle believes that it is her that suffers for being unable to hear his voice.
Rin listens silently as Yanagi opines on why she might have felt the Homunculus' presence so strongly that night. Her hands are too occupied with the best bird in the world to reach for pen and pad of paper, but she will certainly commit the words to paper when she gets back to her vehicle, to avoid the words fading in her memory. It's interesting to her that even one of the ones consistently considered experts on these matters still do not have perfect answers to every question.
Rin does not even realize how her eyes light up when Yanagi mentions that a Potential as one of the possibilities, but Pernelle, held in her arms, may feel the faintest tremor that passes through her.
More details to be jotted down when she exits the boutique, about magical materials and items and a couple more hints as to the process involved with freeing the true host from their prison. "Then I very much welcome your assistance, Nagisa-san," she says quietly after the confirmation that there is no harm to her husband, returning to the original fiction that there is a deal to be made here. (As Yanagi answers openly, there really isn't, strictly speaking, but it is a very polite fiction to maintain, regardless).
Rin intends to follow up regarding the materials with the other people she's spoken to, but if no lie is being spun, it simply sounds mutually beneficial to Rin's ears -- her husband is returned to her and to himself, and Peacock Silk gains the enchanted materials they utilize in their business. (Is that why they only accept the Awakened as clientele?)
She becomes more pensive as Yanagi quite thoroughly answers her question. On the subject of Awakening, it is similar but more detailed to the last answer she received to this question, regarding the possibility (and possibility only) in the face of supernatural danger. Pernelle can feel the tension in her body as she clutches him a little closer. Rin has never, ever, ever once in her entire life been one to take wild gambles. (Even going into practice for herself instead of returning to corporate accounting was very well hedged, given their previous savings, Kenzo's career, and the exceptionally modest startup costs.)
And this would be the most reckless, most absolute gamble of them all -- even if it only risked her personal safety. And it doesn't. Even with the offer freely given, does she have the right to willfully, knowingly endanger other lives for her selfish impulse?
"I cannot honestly say that you are wrong," she murmurs when Yanagi indeed cuts so quickly to the heart of it. "But it is a difficult idea," she confesses. "The thought of simply...turning aside and returning to life as it was, without at least seeing it once for myself." Something to take away with her after the supernatural so brusquely intruded into her world where such a thing was previously unthinkable.
A weak, nervous laugh escapes her as Yanagi finishes and she gently deposits Pernelle back onto the workstation. "You make it sound such an appealing prospect..." she responds quietly. It is clear that she will have to consider it more, but she is perhaps closer to an (honest) answer than when she walked in. "But thank you, Nagisa-san, for your time and your answers, so freely given," she says more evenly.
"And I will not forget our deal, Pernelle-chan," she promises to the peacock that she continues to choose to believe is not simply a cheap joke at her expense. He is terribly expressive.
And then an exchange of business cards between the two women before Rin exits the boutique. If nothing else, it is very heartening that there are more people -- and the consistently-acclaimed experts, at that -- available to ensure that the creature that should not exist will be successfully excised from Kenzo Sasaki.