2026-03-19: Seeking the Dragon... Limes?
- Log: Seeking the Dragon... Limes?
- Cast: Yua Ijuuin, Masao Inaba, Maki Sonomura
- Where: Aoba Park - Dark Hour
- OOC Date: 2026-03-19
- IC Date: Fri Oct 12 2012
- Summary: The Bride assaults Aoba Park's Almost Midnight Market, a capitalist venture by the new hopeful Dragon Harpy. Masao and Maki aren't about to let her get to the demon unhindered, though -- Masao knows she's bad news, and Maki realises that her powers aren't anything good, either. When she finally breaks through the veterans' line, though, she learns... that there was never a Dragon /Line/ involved in this venture at all. ....................................... Dragon Harpy's speciality is selling Dragon Limes...................
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
Miho has an assignment she regrettably needs to invest her resources into, tonight... but one of her Empusa contacts told her about a vendor who she's heard set up shop around the Dragon Lines in Sumaru, too. And even if her instinct was to leave it until she could investigate personally...
... Yua, over dinner, insisted that she would go and investigate the hearsay. "If it's in Sumaru, we need to know right away, right? Don't worry, Mimi! If I'm facing a lot of trouble, I'll leave right away!!"
And by God, she's cute enough to get away with it.
That's not a common addition to the Rumour, though -- it's why Empusa could offer Miho such an exclusive deal. (For the correct price, of course.) Most tellings speak of a Dragon Vendor, operating an Almost Midnight Market in Aoba Park. The Rumour is new enough that it could soon fizzle out... but what if it's something good?!
'Almost Midnight,' of course, can only mean one thing...
... so let's wait for that tick, tick, tock.
The Dark Hour stops all traffic -- all remaining foot traffic, out this close to midnight -- and all the lights too. Luckily, a sick green moon rises high, providing plenty of illumination for thieves and ne'er-do-wells. Where there were people, now there are coffins; where there was water, now there is blood.
And the Demons, for an hour, can take the city by storm.
So too is it with a Harpy, flitting around a tree, where she's gathered an array of shiny objects, obvious trash, and food she definitely stole from somewhere. Arm sleeves tied around her neck like a cloak, hood pulled up over her head, she's adorned herself with... a dragon hoodie!
"La, la, la~", her sweet voice coaxes visitors in -- a Jack Frost examining a sword thoughtfully, a Slime who has oozed around a broken umbrella such that it opens over him, an Angel considering a tasty-looking apple. (Sinfully tasteful?!) It's a totally hoppin' scene!... by their standards.
It's quite pleasant, really...
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
The world feels like it's starting to crack apart under a glimpse unto what it is that empowers a terrible serial killer to... be who they are, but the world continues apace along its mundane trappings.
One late evening after a rough day at the family's dry cleaning business, Masao 'Mark' Inaba is about to settle in with a beer before hitting up the college study materials of vague but intimidating and difficult nature, when he overhears some of the usual Kasugayama suspects talk about some manner of 'Almost Midnight' vendor in Aoba Park. He considers calling up Eriko about this - she lives and breathes the occult.
...
He shakes his head. Nah. What they saw together was the first time he'd seen her truly horrified in, uh, Basically Forever, and he was there with her. Just seeing a part of that name, and who it was associated with...
...
Yeah, he can't leave this stone unturned. Who can he call? ...No, Reiji would make him buy some kitchen knives along the way. Uesugi's on tour with some other co-workers. Tamaki's working on a difficult case. Tadashi, on the run from an assassin cabal or something (Masao can believe it). You-know-who... he's doing his own thing, wherever he is.
...
He knows who to call.
"Hey... Maki, it's me," Masao decides, "the local kids're talkin' 'bout some kinda vendor at Aoba Park close to midnight. Yeah, college is about to breathe down our necks, but..."
But they don't need another round of trying to be sold kitchen knives right now.
"Might be some serious shit goin' on under our noses, might bet on it bein' trouble like..." He exhales. "Uh, if Elly hadn't told you, I'll fill you in 'bout what we saw."
You know, things being as they are, it's not like they can look away from all that's happening. He can only imagine what would've happened to Tsubasa and their friends if he just kept wheeling on by.
ONE TRIP LATER
The Dark Hour is, as a rule, never a good time. Maybe it's a place to let out steam and feel like one might be more than who they are in the 'normal' hours of the day, but it is rife full of dangerous Shadows, eerie coffins, blood-colored water, and that sickly green sky.
...
"Pff. You all are really havin' yourself a time, huh," Masao can almost laugh, because in the process he just lost another bet. Well. This is the good kind of 'loss' so far, isn't it? Lighter Demon mischief fare, by anyone's standards. "All right," he claps his hands, rubs them together, and looks to Maki with a nod.
Maybe there's one other way to keep the trouble to a minimum, as he steps lightly forward, and...
"Check this!" He calls, to the Demons, and with dazzling movement and confidence that must be captured in iconic brevity to encompass the next part of the ongoing chronicle of the story of humanity and the strange intersections it sometimes has with other planes of existence...
> Mark danced crazy!
<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura has posed.
Yua is very cute. But Maki is no slouch...
Mark calls her, and Maki picks up. "It is bad timing," she agrees, "But maybe that makes it good timing?"
"...Mm. OK."
And what she learned, either from Elly or Mark or both...
Well, the Dark Hour may not be a good time, but it could definitely be worse.
But Mark? Mark just has an oportunity to dance. ...And Maki just made some money!
She smiles at him.
Then she walks up and examines...
"Oh, what a delightful hoodie!" Maki says, clapping once as she looks tot he Harpy. "A dragon pattern? That's really all the rage in Sumaru right now, isn't it?"
...Elly's helping! Fashion!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
True horror, huh? Well, it doesn't seem like this market has much of that...
"Wow!" The Dragon Hoodie Harpy exclaims, as she flaps down to ground level. "Humans! Humans showed up at my Market!"
"I was hungry," Slime burbles. "How do they taste?"
"You can't eat them," Harpy responds, quite sensibly. "They're customers."
"But they're humans," Angel says. "Don't we eat humans?"
AT THAT VERY MOMENT -- MARK DANCED CRAZY!
"Hee-ho!" Jack Frost cheers, as he hops from foot to foot, waving his sword (it's a replica, even in the Dark Hour...) merrily. "This guy's got some moves!"
Maki, meanwhile, notices Harpy's Hoodie. She flaps around, with a flourish. "I'm the famed Dragon Harpy of Sumaru!" She boasts, bravely. "... or, I will be! Now I have this mystical raiment, I'm sure to become the most powerful Harpy in Sumaru! And when that happens, I'll be able to challenge Trish's stranglehold on the economy...!"
Competition, they say, is key to good business. Perhaps Trish heard her, though: because the park grows darker. Jack Frost looks up, but no clouds cover the moon; rather, the sky has darkened. The pathways of the park, perhaps familiar once, become frightening and new, with no certainty as to where or whether they lead. Black Mars the leaves of Harpy's tree; bloody handprints stamp, against the bark.
And Slime bubbles, fascinated: "Coooooool...!"
"Is this the emotion humans call 'love'?" Angel wonders, tilting her head.
"No, you fool, the pressure here is fear!" Harpy huffs. "Who's trying to get my customers all excited?! I, Dragon Harpy, will crush you in a duet!!"
"You're no fun," Jack Frost pouts. "I want to meet hoo did this! I bet hee's a riot!"
"I definitely think this is what humans call love," Angel adds, stubbornly. "They say your heart flutters! Well, it is!!"
"That's right," Slime blorbls. "This is definitely what love feels like."
But Maki would know quite well that this isn't love, or even necessarily fear, though there is a frightening cast to the world all a sudden entirely beyond the usual background terror of the Dark Hour. No... this is the work of an Anti-Navigator.
It become more apparent as a single path becomes illuminated once more, in the green light of the world outside, the park path leading away from the bazaar.
At that moment, a woman steps out, dwarfed by the massive Persona floating across the ground behind her. She is dressed in a dozen veils and fascinators, covering her face, leaving only her mouth visible; a grey wedding dress is joined by a heavy flak jacket, designed with both extra give and protection at the abdomen. Gloves reach to her elbows; she wears boots, below her sweeping gown.
Yumi, the 'Bride', holds her Evoker in her hands as she speaks. "... strangers-visitors to this place, please leave. Sole trading, an island, alone -- she who wrought this shall stay."
"Hoo!" Jack Frost grins, as he hops forward. "You really are a riot! But I guess you're not a 'hee'... let's go, missy!!"
He charges forward with his fake sword...
"Gretchen," Yumi implores her Persona, calmly.
... and a massive diamond falls from the dark sky to crush poor Jack Frost, as Gretchen's arms curl around her, trapping her in a cage made from the vertical steel bars driven through her arms.
When the attack fades, Jack Frost is no more.
"Please leave," the Bride asks, again.
Angel and Slime take one look at each other, and begin hurrying down the one sensible pathway to freedom.
"MY CUSTOMERS!" Dragon Harpy wails, in the background.
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Masao takes a kind of 'oh, someone said that out loud' look on his face as the self-proclaimed Dragon Harpy of Sumaru threatens to challenge Trish. Maybe he did just drag Maki and himself into a capitalistic turf war as possible collateral, and they really don't need Trish raising prices on them again. The economy really hasn't gotten any better!!!
...Other than that, things... were good. They no longer are, though he's slower to come around to it than Maki is despite having been caught in this particular trap of a certain Persona-user three times already.
He gets the point when he sees Gretchen and their caged wielder anew. Disgust and dismay give way to a scowl, as Masao steps closer to Maki with an axe drawn from his backpack.
"Are we doin' this again?" Exasperated, until... the Jack Frost is crushed. It's a Jack Frost, there are infinite like it, but this one got unmade in front of him and also Jack Frost has always been a favorite (as far as having a 'favorite' Demon goes, when any of them would be content to kill and eat you at the drop of a hat).
"That one was cool!" Masao shouts, angry. "Cooler than usual!" And now he's glad that Brown wasn't available because he absolutely would not have let that lay-up go, looking over to Maki in brief.
"I've faced her before," he says, and he's not saying this from a place of 'yeah I'll win' but a quiet understated horror... and a recognition that he's seeing someone who was able to see themselves to a better place after an Ordeal. Something that maybe he hopes can be done for this one, but until then...
...You know what, maybe they shouldn't leave Dragon Harpy to her fate against this one.
"We aren't goin' nowhere but through!" ...Which would mean 'through to the exit' and there was a gentle invitation to do that, but let it not be said that Masao fails to yet be his inner Chariot, holding his open arm out as a blue column of light appears. Ogun soon follows, swaying their arms up and down as raw magical energies coalesce and explode upon Gretchen.
"Megido!" A word of great power attached, spoken with sincerity and clarity of knowing and capability - and yet seeming to lack a smidge of... depth? It's hard to describe the seeming feeling of 'lack,' but whatever way that can be defined, Masao Inaba does not heed it.
GAME: Masao Inaba has assumed form 1, Ogun!
AS: Masao Inaba has readied for combat as Ogun! He is now fully healed!
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Almighty skill Megido on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ijuuin takes 119 Almighty damage from Masao Inaba's Megido.
<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura has posed.
Humans! Maki sure is a human. Maki smiles brightly at being Customers. "Going for Trish, hm?" Maki says, whistling once as if impressed. "Well, make sure you don't miss! She's pretty ruthless. I'm definitely interested to see what you bring to the table, though..."
A Jack Frost with a sword, though. Who'd have thought?
Suddenly...
"...Everyone," Maki says. Things stop being good. "Be careful. I sense a a powerful presence."
Or rather, she doesn't sense a powerful presence--but when you learn to do it, the absence is much like the presence, in terms of what information it can give you. The mark it leaves on the natural world...
well, as natural as the Dark Hour gets.
And then there is a massive Persona. Maki blinks once, and stares. Strangers-visitors....
Jack Frost is gone. "Mark," Maki starts, alarmed. She doesn't even return the pun of 'cool'; that's how disturbed she is. "I see," Maki says. "She has a powerful Persona. Her concealment abilities are strong--we won't be able to make it out of here easily unless she lets us."
"I don't know why you want this demon," Maki says, "But I won't simply stand by without knowing. Persona!"
Tianxian Niang Niang appears behind Maki, gently resting gloved hands on the young woman's shoulders. Maki looks up, her eyes glowing solid white.
"Now," she says. "Tell me about yourself..."
Her Persona's Navigation abilities begin to hone in on Gretchen and the Bride. Scrutiny is never gentle, but it is warm rather than cold, like being held in the palm of a greater being, understood more surely than anything.
It may not be pleasant to the Bride, considering.
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Almighty skill Full Analysis on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Insight: Maki Sonomura gains 1 Limit!
AS: Maki Sonomura's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Yua Ijuuin takes 0 Almighty damage from Maki Sonomura's Full Analysis.
AS: Maki Sonomura's Strength Scan! Yua Ijuuin resists Earth!
AS: Maki Sonomura's Weakness Scan! Yua Ijuuin is weak against Light!
AS: Maki Sonomura's Support Scan! Yua Ijuuin has passive skills Back Row, Block Dark, Block Water, Explode Boost, Fortify Spirit, Jamming, Mind Up, Nerve Up, and Skill Card Affinity!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"Cold," the Bride replies. "Gelid, frozen, arctic. His blood, too. A plastic sword, yet true intentions. Not long past did Angels thirst for me and mine."
She pauses, delicate. "I did ask nicely," she points out, with a light sigh.
But Masao declares his intentions to fight, and what he invokes --
"Struck the Gods a hammer to earth!" Yumi cries, as the light of Megido builds around Gretchen's cage. Light collects around the lot of them, as if to bind the cage in a concentric cage -- yet it BURSTS, exploding with white, blinding light, a hint of something purple and strange in its aftermath.
Gretchen shatters; Yumi takes a step back, clasping her free hand to her chest. "Gretchen! No! You... you, woodsman of groove's grove! You, of ferocious might...! Yet you are alone," she insists, her trepidation steeling into resolve. "You and your friend have brought no allies... even now, I am not so weak as to run from only two foes!"
There's an almost crazed curl to her lip as she raises her Evoker to her face, to the place where her left eye would sit. She pulls the trigger, she screams: "GRETCHEN!" ... and in a shower of red flames, which linger as they burn from her eye, that white maiden rises to tower over them anew.
Maki asks her about herself, though, and Yumi states: "I am here spoken 'Yumi', the Bride, who shall claim this space." But that wasn't what Maki meant -- and she shrieks, as she feels that warm light of understanding. "Away from me!" She screams, as she turns, to bury herself in Gretchen's skirts, to hide; and have you ever seen a woman hiding against her own Persona, the most futile action known to man?
'Yumi', as she speaks it, is a shield she has raised over herself; a shield which Maki cracks, as she examines her, to get a fleeting sense of her Resonance below. Maki will know, then, that she is chthonic in nature; pooling stillwater, dark caverns, still earth, a dungeon one is thrown into and forgotten about. Shine no light into her. She is not someone accustomed to the front lines; it is difficult, in turn, to strike her. She has adaptability in her soul, a strong affinity and understanding of statuses, and yet -- at the same time -- a universal weakness to them all.
She will know, at the same time, that 'Yumi' -- who is not who this woman is, though Maki will have to place more concerted effort into breaking that shroud down entirely -- is not alone, where she stands.
Central to the belly, someone else resists Earth and is weak to the Light... though, Maki may get the feeling that this little guy is borrowing the Bride's protection.
"You -- YOU!" Yumi screams, as she gestures, wildly, with her Evoker. (Did she get another one, Masao...? She certainly lost hers, back in Yumezaki...) "Bind to black!" She demands, as Gretchen spreads her arms to gesture to Masao, and dark spires of shadow rise from the ground to cage him, before they collapse in over him, leaving him with a horrible sense of being weighted down. Yumi staggers, as the spell is invoked; she catches herself, again, on Gretchen's skirts.
"And you!" She demands, pointing her free hand at Maki, as she straightens. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"
This is no warm understanding -- at least, not in and of itself. This is an inhabiting, as the Bride takes Maki's nature into herself, to possess herself with her ways and habits, to know and breathe and FEEL how it is to be her. And in turn, she leaves Maki with a little sense of the pain which Yumi is in; there can be no take without a little give.
And the breath she draws is ragged.
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Dark skill Chthonic Cage on Masao Inaba!
AS: Yua Ijuuin takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Ruin: Yua Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Possession on Maki Sonomura!
AS: Yua Ijuuin takes 45 damage from Stress!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Possession.
AS: Pain (Attacker takes damage on healing and PL 0 attacks!) added!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Strength Scan! Maki Sonomura resists Fire!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Weakness Scan! Maki Sonomura is weak against Dark!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's Support Scan! Maki Sonomura has passive skills Break Limit, Fire Boost, Mitigate Light, Pierce Boost, Skill Card Affinity, Spotlight, and Tough Love!
AS: Counter Worst! Masao Inaba takes 168 Dark damage from Yua Ijuuin's Chthonic Cage. Critical Hit!
AS: Bomb (Attacker takes damage on damaging attacks!) added!
AS: COUNTER! Yua Ijuuin takes 86 Dark damage in return for her attack!
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Sometimes, indignation is the only thing that lets someone stay able to face and fight someone with a horrific capability like this. To step into Gretchen's domain - or more like have it step into oneself, as the case may be - is a risk that one will never find their way out again.
But as his friends know, Masao was the kind of guy to mouth off at a tyrant who would forever encase him in stone - and he holds fast to that conviction as Gretchen shatters.
Even he can crack a smile at that rare upper hand. It doesn't last, because even that fails to desensitize him to that very sight of the Evoker to one's face. He will never get used to that. He sucks in a breath watching that painful ritualistic summoning play out anew.
"You don't gotta run if we stop you," he's running his mouth. He wants to stop her. He wants her to put that thing down and... and talk to Maki which she is doing in her strange way.
Gretchen's reappearance ensures this does not happen this moment.
Masao tries to launch himself as the 'bind to black' is called, and it does - dark spires of shadow grasp and entrap him. He thrashes wildly with the axe - no, 'wildly' is overselling his capacity to do just that, under this much pressure as it compresses and collapses into him, only displacing back some of the dark energies on sheer cussedness.
"Gkkh," he gasps, the street artist looking like the pressure could force him into becoming textured sidewalk art if he were pushed down much further. 'TELL ME THE TRUTH!'
"She doesn't owe you anything...!" Masao strains to shout as he attempts - maybe futilely - to lift his arm to swing his axe high. (It is, by coincidence, not angled towards the core because he is throwing everything into the swing at risk of overcommitting the momentum. This may not be much relief to those who have a clearer perspective of what - or who - is all here.)
AS: Weapon! Masao Inaba has used the Slash skill Melee - Axe on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Masao Inaba takes 90 damage from Bomb!
AS: Aggression: Masao Inaba gains 1 Limit!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ijuuin takes 85 Slash damage from Masao Inaba's Melee - Axe. Critical Hit!
<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura has posed.
Demons are... demons. That much is true. Maki's not going to be too sad at losing one, given that they wanted to eat them. "You did," Maki allows of asking nicely.
"Don't underestimate us," Maki warns the Bride. Only two foes...
"Yumi... I wish I could say 'it's nice to meet you'. But it doesn't seem you'll back down."
But she screams, trying to hide against her Persona. And the red flame...
"She's strong against Earth attacks," Maki advises Mark. "Don't bother using Gry on her. She's weak against Light... but Elly-chan's not here..."
She considers. "Ailments will work, though they risk making her stronger. Area attacks are best."
"And--" Her eyes widen. "Yumi-san," she says, "You're pregnant?"
"Mark," she says, "Make sure to focus your attacks on her Persona. We can't let her do as she wishes, but..." She doesn't want to risk the baby more than she has to. That baby, who... "I'll skip using Light, just in case." She could. "Mark!" she calls in warning, but Yumi points at her and demands--
To be a woman of average height, not much younger than Yua herself, with short hair. To be in a nice coat, the texture of which is soothing. Consciousness of the world around her; see five things, hear four things, feel three things... To be Maki is first of all to understand calm. Her 'self' is warm, composed, gentle. She is assuredly herself, to the point that Yua, for a moment, might forget what it is to be 'Yua' and remember only what it is to be 'Maki Sonomura'. But it becomes that much more dangerous the longer Yua holds it, because holding Maki's psyche is to understand fragmentation. Yua's mind might feel as if it is ripping, tearing, becoming her inner child and her inner demon and her ideal self all at once.
"No--" Maki understands what's happening. "You can't--That's too dangerous!"
A yawning abyss awaits, where the mind splits apart. In Maki's dreams--"STOP!" Maki cries, and it is not in worry for herself that she cries out. Taishan Niangniang, phoenixes on her dress, lifts her hand and from the sky rains down a barrage of arrows for Gretchen, to try to interrupt her sensing.
Then she fades in the next instant, as Maki rushes to Mark to help him up. "Hang in there," she tells him. "She doesn't really want to hurt you..."
Her eyes snap up to 'Yumi'. "Leave the demon be. If you tell us what you want, we may be able to all walk away happy."
AS: Maki Sonomura spends Limit on Help Up! Bomb removed from Masao Inaba! Hyper (Next Attack BoostedIncoming Damage Down!) appllied to Masao Inaba! They both receive 8 SP and 30 HP!
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Pierce skill Arrow Rain on Yua Ijuuin! 3 Hits!
AS: Maki Sonomura's turn has ended.
AS: Block Best! Yua Ijuuin takes 18 Pierce damage from Maki Sonomura's Arrow Rain. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Worst! Yua Ijuuin takes 50 Pierce damage from Maki Sonomura's Arrow Rain. Critical Hit!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ijuuin takes 12 Pierce damage from Maki Sonomura's Arrow Rain.
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"I will not," Yumi replies, when Maki supposes she won't back down.
And then -- "You will not take me," Gretchen assures Masao, when he says she doesn't have to run. "I am taken, taken, and taken again."
... why does she assume that the only reason she wouldn't run is because she'd be captured?
She sighs, regret in her voice, as she answers: "I am. Judge me not. Were there others, here would they stand. Yet always it is demands, demands, demands! I expected little trouble... tell that titan beside you, to other places, go!" Damn, she's real spooked about Mark, huh?
She does not relish hearing Mark's cries; her lips turn down, the hint of a grim expression. Yet elicit them she does -- and she cries out, in turn, when he lifts that familiar axe high. "Gretchen, aid me!"
Gretchen does what she always does -- closes her arms around Yua, to take that massive strike on herself. He shatters a diamond bracelet on her arm, one of the Persona's many jewels; yet the cage holds.
And Gretchen's faceless mask turns towards Maki, as Yumi takes her in.
There's a line to be drawn, here, to a woman who addresses her Persona as her companion in suffering. Who is by one turn supportive, and by the next betraying those students to the darkness; who wears a rich ring, yet sleeps in a woman's bed. It is not so hard to fracture the woman who is not Yumi, who already answers to to two names...
There, in the deep, ever-burning, there is...
Arrows hail into Gretchen; despite Yumi being somewhere far away, her Persona protects her, still. It is only at the third volley that Yumi seems to register that she is being struck, as she looks, sharply, from left to right. "Ah?" She asks, and finds Maki, there. "You! You are vast. You contain multitudes. Reflect the surface of a pond still deep!"
She shakes her head, looking to the Harpy hiding in her tree. "What has led to this nexus is the power of the Dragons hence; where, then, their coming?"
She takes a breath, grasping her Evoker to her chest. "Gretchen," she implores her, "shield me from their prying gaze." The Shroud which falls upon her makes her shimmer, at the edges, a little more distinct, a little harder to make out. Still, it's possible to see the way she turns to Maki, as she says: "Concern for the likes of me is ill-suited to your goals. I will show you..." And Gretchen waves her arms, as Stagnant Air rises, around Maki.
Finally, she pulls something much like a bullet from the pouches at her vest. "Loading Marin Karin cartridge," she invokes, as she lifts her Evoker to her eye once more. "Firing." And pink, alluring hearts reflect in Gretchen's jewels, as she channels a flirtatious spell not her own Masao's way.
Apparently, her solution to him being so scary is to Charm him...
AS: Yua Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Yua Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Recovery skill Deep Shroud on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 1 bonus Weak actions!
AS: You can't attack while you have an attack in your queue.
AS: Take! Yua Ijuuin takes 80 Recovery healing from Yua Ijuuin's Deep Shroud.
AS: Eclipse (Weakness turned to Resist!) added!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Dark skill Stagnant Air on Maki Sonomura! 3 Hits!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Marin Karin on Masao Inaba!
AS: Ruin: Yua Ijuuin gains 1 Limit!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended.
AS: Block Neutral! Maki Sonomura takes 43 Dark damage from Yua Ijuuin's Stagnant Air. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Block Best! Maki Sonomura takes 18 Dark damage from Yua Ijuuin's Stagnant Air. Weak!
AS: Block Neutral! Maki Sonomura takes 28 Dark damage from Yua Ijuuin's Stagnant Air. Weak!
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Marin Karin.
AS: Charm (Attacker or Ally takes Damage!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
Just as Masao comes from the return of his axe swing, he hears some key words.
'Yumi-san, you're pregnant?'
"Wha--?!" His face tenses and freezes with clenched teeth. Did he really just almost... oh no. "Ah shit."
Anger and indignation gives ground to the binding shadows that bring crushing weight to even aggress against Gretchen's presence. He doesn't yell over Maki's tactical advice as to what the Navigator picks up, because there's an internal horror that he might have almost done something terrible.
Maki's pained, insistent 'STOP' is enough to get him to struggle up and worsen it, until Maki comes to help him up. Somehow, with her help, breaking out of the shadowy weight feels easier - even weightless - as it can be when one moves to help another. He's still stewing somewhat with the horror of it.
"Thanks..."
'Hang in there, she doesn't really wan tto hurt you...'
"...All right. All right," he takes in a breath, stands up. He raises a free hand. "You're really doin' this, with..." With a child coming. He doesn't need to ask, she is - even as Yumi insists that concern for the likes of her is, in her words, 'ill-suited to (their) goals.'
"Hey, let's not--" There is a Marin Karin.
(pink hearts go chu!)
There's something very different in what he sees compared to seconds ago. He can't identify what 'it' is that wins him over about Gretchen, but this undefinable 'it' does, and it draws his gaze. A smile widens, and a little laugh. "Wow... why would I wanna even hit that," a gap in the hesitation about what it is he very nearly endangered is exploited and filled in. Only the vestiges of acknowledgement that a dear friend is in danger by the Stagnant Air that fills a space nearby is enough of a wedge - if just so - that the blue column of light surrounds him anew.
"You gotta get through," he calls, as Ogun appears once more in that thin light that stretches outward into that woody humanoid shape, spear held high as the blessing of he who clears the way falls upon Maki.
"I... I dunno how I can get through with that..."
AS: Persona! Masao Inaba has used the Almighty skill Tarukaja on Maki Sonomura!
AS: Charm results in party damage! Masao Inaba takes 90 damage!
AS: Masao Inaba: Charm and Hyper removed!
AS: Masao Inaba's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 0 Almighty damage from Masao Inaba's Tarukaja.
AS: Masao Inaba spends Limit on Shift! Maki Sonomura can use another Weak skill this round!
<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura has posed.
"There must be something very important to you on the line," Maki says instead of offering Yua judgement. "Or a coercion you can't resist. I don't think telling you you're wrong would make it any better."
"...But I'm not going to back down, either."
Mark hears her, though. And Maki shakes her head. But before she can answer that, she is told she is vast. "I am," Maki says. "But so do we all. The 'Persona' is but one of the many faces we all wear..."
"You're wearing a mask, now. Is it so different?"
"Just hang on," Maki suggests to the Harpy. "Whatever she wants... I have a feeling it might not be better to--"
Concern is ill-suited to her goals, and the stagnant air rises. "Aaah!" Maki stumbles back, hit hard by the first blow that knocks her from her feet and sees the air around her close in. Coughing, Maki has to push herself back up in a moment.
"...I don't... concern myself with being 'optimal' about my goals," Maki answers.
Mark's magic will help her. Even as he has difficulty. So...
"...I'll hurt myself if I try to use support moves," Maki says. "That's the power she's used on me."
"...But I can still fight."
Her Persona reappears, the masked woman in white swirling into being amidst blue flame. "Persona!"
Maki points forward. "Drive her back!"
Taishan Niangniang puts out a hand, and a great ball of flame erupts for Gretchen, rather than for Yumi--one that explodes into a smaller wave of flame, meant to put a distance between her and the Dragon Harpy and--well, them.
"You might be able to hold him back," Maki allows, "But not forever. ...We're not new at this."
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Fire skill Agilao on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Fire skill Maragi on Yua Ijuuin!
AS: Maki Sonomura: Pain removed!
AS: Maki Sonomura's turn has ended.
AS: Mind Up! Yua Ijuuin's SP +8!
AS: Block Best! Yua Ijuuin takes 52 Fire damage from Maki Sonomura's Agilao.
AS: Block Neutral! Yua Ijuuin takes 59 Fire damage from Maki Sonomura's Maragi.
AS: Haze (Physical and Block Penalized!) added!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"This is not a world where I cannot fight," the Bride responds, to Masao and Maki both, with regret. "Tonight, I reach closer to that world of my happiness. I must claim this, before you may. Indeed, it is your presence here which affirms my choice to insist..."
"Your 'mask'?" She wonders, tilting her head. "How strange. Gretchen bled with me... that's why we're always together. Since we grew from that same bone-dusted soil..."
"I do NOT want to sell to her!" Dragon Harpy insists, up there. "She's cuckoo crazy! Like my aunt! She had cuckoo wings, though, y'know?! She had an excuse."
"Sellling...?" Yumi wonders, vaguely. "So, you are the source..."
"ACK," Dragon Harpy yelps, disappearing back into the branches.
Marin Karin does its work, though, and Yumi nods, gravely. "You do not wish to strike me," she guides him, 'helpfully'. "You cannot break through."
And Maki's left choking, but...
"It hurts," she asks, "doesn't it, to aid those around you? No... you must act."
... is that a metaphor, or something?
Flame courses over Gretchen; for long moments her dress burns, though her cage remains untouched. Still, Yumi sweats, beneath her veils, as those bars heat up. "You are not," she recognises them, then. "Yet long have I been turned to this task, Sybil, chthonic to your ilk. Very well; I shall not fell you."
Water washes over the battlefield, at Gretchen's raised hand, curling around the both of them with enervation and ailment both, before the drowning bubbles violently pop. But worse -- it reaches up to that tree, to disrupt the demon hiding there.
"You," the Bride strides forward, in the chaos she's sown, towards that tree. "The Dragon Line you act on... its secrets will you yield to me."
"Aaahh! Wet feathers, wet feathers, ugh!" Dragon Harpy wails, as she falls from the tree. "What are you talking about, cuckoo lady?! You decimated the line for my goods!"
She pauses, as she's picking herself up.
"Unless..."
"Unless?" Yumi asks, pointedly.
"You're not here for my Sumaru-famed Dragon Limes," Harpy exclaims, flapping her wings, "are you?!"
The Bride stops.
Her mouth hangs open.
"Your... Dragon Limes," she enunciates, carefully.
"Yeah!" Harpy cheers up, immediately. "Dragon Limes! You know! Specially grown to give magical critters a real kick! Oh, though I wouldn't suggest you humans eat them..."
"........"
Well, it would be time for an All-Out Attack, but... are you sure she's not already defeated...?
AS: Yua Ijuuin spends Limit on Exploit! Yua Ijuuin can use another Weak skill this round!
AS: Yua Ijuuin spends Limit on Break!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Disrupting Wave on Masao Inaba and Maki Sonomura!
AS: You still have 2 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Almighty skill Pain Wave on Masao Inaba and Maki Sonomura!
AS: You still have 1 regular actions and 0 bonus Weak actions!
AS: Persona! Yua Ijuuin has used the Water skill Bruising Wave on Masao Inaba and Maki Sonomura!
AS: Yua Ijuuin: Haze and Break removed!
AS: Yua Ijuuin's turn has ended. It's time for an All-Out Attack!
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Disrupting Wave.
AS: Crt_Dn (Critical down!) added!
AS: Nemesis! Maki Sonomura can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Pain Wave.
AS: Panic (Damage when using PersonaTandem!) added!
AS: Block Neutral! Maki Sonomura takes 95 Water damage from Yua Ijuuin's Bruising Wave. Critical Hit!
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Disrupting Wave.
AS: Spd_Dn (Avoid Penalized!) added!
AS: Nemesis! Masao Inaba can take another Weak action this round!
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Almighty damage from Yua Ijuuin's Pain Wave.
AS: Paralyze (Physical and Avoid Penalized!) and Rage (Weapon Attack and Incoming Damage Up!) added!
AS: Block Neutral! Masao Inaba takes 214 Water damage from Yua Ijuuin's Bruising Wave. Critical Hit! Weak!
AS: Masao Inaba is unable to continue fighting!
<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.
"I'm friggin' cuckoo crazy all of a sudden!" Masao snaps. He sort of is! His gaze lingers upon Gretchen. The artist in him starts fixating on the finer details as the Marin Karin's lingering effects start to fade, and it is a gradual off-ramp to ambivalence, and then inward reminder that no matter how many times it affects someone to the point of hindsight recognition...
Marin Karin remains difficult to resist, as so many spells of that ilk are.
Maki holds her resolve, and her dear friend Mark - though sometimes a bit of the clown he was in his youth - shakes himself up and stands resolute with a smile as if to say 'yeah she's right - Maki is, let me clarify,' somehow the smile is that expressive.
Then, there's water, and Masao takes several sloshing, slippery steps back. "Oh man--"
'You're not here for my Sumaru-famed Dragon Limes, are you?!'
Masao stops slipping against the rushing water, turning around and looking up.
An exaggerated sweat bead with a distant, nostalgic sound in the deepest recesses of one's psyche forms as he puts a hand to the back of his bowed head. "Did she just say Dragon Limes."
...
The sweat bead, in miniscule, is actually one of the aforementioned drowning bubbles that never quite gets around his head. It does not need to. It descends dutifully down the man's face to complete the time-honored cartoonish emotional indicator before it explodes like a punch upside the head, spiraling him and flopping face-down into the surf.
He is now so much happier Uesugi is not here for it.
<Pose Tracker> Maki Sonomura has posed.
To claim... something? "To change the world...? You don't understand," Maki is sure. "What that looks like... it's not something to be desired."
But a mask, she says. "Yes. The Persona is one of the many masks we wear in life. The 'you' around people you don't know; the 'you' to those you love the most. The 'you' to the supernatural..."
"It's unkind to call someone crazy," Maki chides. "You never know when someone's just dealing with something you don't understand." Pause. "Uh-oh. Stay back, Miss Harpy!"
It hurts...
Hmm.
Water rises, after Yumi says she will not fell them. The bubbles pop, and Maki is driven back this time. She feels panic welling up inside herself, and even if she can recognize it and self-soothe, it still makes the connection between herself and her Persona harder. She'll just have to accept that--
Because she falls back on her butt a moment later, wincing when she lands. "Ugh..."
But the Bridde stops. And--
"..."
'Did she just say Dragon Limes.'
"Yes. Yes, she did," Maki answers, and is quiet for another few moments. Mark looks in pretty rough shape...
"So," Maki says, "I think we're done here."
She turns to the harpy. "We'll take a few. How much do you want?"
A glance at the Bride. "..."
Maki's Persona spreads healing sparkles on Mark, the Harpy, and Maki. She gives the Bride an apologetic look. "...You should sell her some too," Maki suggests. "She worked really hard."
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Recovery skill Shining Recarm on Maki Sonomura and Masao Inaba!
AS: Maki Sonomura takes 90 damage from Panic!
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 159 Recovery healing from Maki Sonomura's Shining Recarm.
AS: Persona! Maki Sonomura has used the Recovery skill Me Patra on Maki Sonomura and Masao Inaba!
AS: Maki Sonomura: Fast Heal! Panic removed!
AS: Maki Sonomura's turn has ended.
AS: Take! Maki Sonomura takes 0 Recovery healing from Maki Sonomura's Me Patra.
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 217 Recovery healing from Maki Sonomura's Shining Recarm.
AS: Take! Masao Inaba takes 0 Recovery healing from Maki Sonomura's Me Patra.
AS: Rage removed!
<Pose Tracker> Yua Ijuuin has posed.
"You are not mad," the Bride informs Masao, evenly. "I have confused your senses. Cease your struggle, exit hence, and no more shall you inhabit uncertainty." Marin Karin is mean. Yumi has a healthy respect for the ferocity of Mark's axe!!!
... the Bride's face does turn to him, for long moments, as if scrutinising that smile. It must take her a while to really parse out all the details...
"In this place, neither my son nor I can be free," the Bride insists. "We cannot be happy, in this place. Only the next." They are words laden with grief, though her eyes cannot be seen.
"How strange," she says, thoughtfully, "that your 'Persona' should be part of you, and mine should be the woman who bled alongside me... this world is so vast."
And then, Mark realises what the Harpy said, as the water's doing its work, and --
"He..." Yumi says, still entirely taken aback. "He was as defeated by the absurdity as by my drowning waters..."
Dragon Harpy flaps the water out of her wings, and huffs. "Well, I guess you did come to my rescue..." She muses, as those healing sparklies rain upon her, restoring her prized dragon hoodie. "I guess I'll give them to you for a thousand yen each!"
But Maki has a suggestion, and the demon gives her a scrutinising look. "Seriously?! She was gonna stone me so hard I was gonna turn into two birds!"
"..." Yumi's mouth is still hanging open. "... but... if that is all this is... I would like some Dragon Limes," she finds her voice, eventually. "It's..."
Her voice softens. "It's so cute..."
"Rrrrrhhh... fine! But for you, the price is ten thousand yen, cuckoo lady!" Dragon Harpy huffs. "Take it or leave it!!"
There's no way anyone can afford --
"I would like a basket of Dragon Limes, please," Yumi requests, as she reaches into a pocket of her flak jacket to pull out an unreasonable sum of money.
-- okay, apparently evil people can afford that?! What the fuck kind of salary do you get in the NWO?!?!?!
"This must be how Trish feels," Dragon Harpy reflects, as she takes the fat stack of cash and hands over a cute little basket of ferocious-looking limes, tears leaking down her feathery face. "I'm so happy..."