2026-03-29: Boisterous Bounce-Back
- Log: Boisterous Bounce-Back
- Cast: Isabeau Fontaine, Vivienne Sournois
- Where: Kagurazaka - Le Cinema du Monde
- OOC Date: 2026-03-29
- IC Date: Wed, Oct 17 2012
- Summary: Isabeau wasn't bothered by the events at the Aerospace Museum at all! She does, however, have intel and materials for Vivienne. And a thousand insults for her fellows! Viv might not have seen that strange bullet before, but she's definitely seen teenagers who think they're the best... even when it's clear they're not as unbothered as they insist they are.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau didn't stick around, after they got to the beach. Water-logged -- her waspish Persona might have hauled a child with her, keeping him out of the water as he dangled from his shirt through what she assured him was a levitation spell, but she still had to SWIM -- and foul of mood, she insulted some boy's beanie to cover her own sickening drowning-terror, and stormed off.
At dinner, that night, she sulkily declared the whole thing BAD.
... though she's at least able to sheepishly hand over an antiquated flak jacket she stole (BORROWED! FOR A GOOD CAUSE!) from the Aerospace Museum before it went up in flames. According to her, it was her first thought for surviving an explosion; she's sure that her father can make sure it finds its way back to the right hands. Luckily, it was very well protected by her Supernatural transformation -- far better than anything left behind as the museum burned.
It's not really until the next day that she can handle what happened -- and even then, only after dealing with that day's exams. Those are wretched, too! She scarcely has time to read the question, and she already needs to have written an answer! Isabeau barely understands the papers, written in Japanese as they are; there's no way she can get a good score.
Long story short: she didn't need the return of the Hindenburg to give up on midterms.
It's after school, then, that she makes a call, and heads out to Viv's theatre to hand over an artifact at least as important as that piece of history she put to work. Still in her Shujin suspenders, rich curls all gathered up in a ponytail behind her head, she has something in her pencil box which definitely isn't a snail.
She ducks her head into the office, and says: "Hey, Viv. You might want to close up for a bit?"
Well, that's putting it mildly.
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
Vivienne was not present at the Aerospace Museum, but she had heard that something was happening... no doubt, in all likelihood, due to Eveline's information gathering skills. It's a relief, then, when Isabeau shows up safe and sound... and it seems she wants to meet with her.
And so when Isabeau arrives, Vivienne looks up to greet her with a smile.
"I've already made the arrangements." Vivienne assures, sliding out of her seat. "Just give me a moment."
She heads out to the lobby to shut the power off to the marquee lights, flip the sign to closed, and lock the doors. But as she does all this...
"Tell me, Isabeau, dear... How are you doing, after all that frightful business the other day?" Vivienne asks, curious, as she goes about her work.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau isn't going to feel bad about shutting the theatre in the middle of the afternoon; they really don't want someone just walking in on this.
Well, Isabeau doesn't want someone walking in on this.
"It didn't bother me at all!" She boasts, which is to say, lies, as she pulls out that pencil case. "Of course, everyone else was losing their minds... it's just a little bit of ocean! Honestly! It's not even anything!" Liefully, she lays out the prize she's lying around on the table, which magically becomes the Lying Table at her touch. "They could have asked me if that zeppelin was going to go down, I could have told them about the Hindenburg! Hmph, not like midterms care about that..."
Isabeau folds her arms, and pouts. "Seriously, setting a museum on fire during midterms? It's like he specifically timed his meltdown to get on my nerves!"
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
Vivienne listens to Isabeau boast as she works. She smiles to herself all the while.
"Not one bit? My." Vivienne humors her. "'Just a little bit of ocean', hm? Well, you certainly showed them, didn't you? Here you are, in one piece."
The zeppelin went down, even... Vivienne 'hm's to herself thoughtfully. Isabeau has certainly been through a lot, hasn't she? She's brimming with confidence now - or at least acting like she is - but she can imagine that must have been difficult.
"A shame, then, they didn't think to ask - but such is their loss." She shuts the blinds, then - and chuckles, as Isabeau pouts. "How inconsiderate of him, truly, to pick such an inopportune time."
And with that she returns to her office, settling back into her chair and turning her attention to the box Isabeau set upon it.
"Now then... What's this you have brought to me? May I open it?" Vivienne asks.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"They should have been thanking me!" Isabeau huffs. "I'm the only person who wasn't totally freaking out!"
(Isabeau most certainly did freak out when it came time to jump off the zeppelin. She just channeled that energy into being even more of a prick.)
"It's more than I can say for the Joker Killer," she huffs, hands to her hips. "You know, that thing they're always talking about in Sumaru? How if you ring your own number, you can tell them someone's name and they'll die? Apparently it really worked, and there was this guy, Tatsuya Sudou, who was doing it!" Isabeau definitely doesn't pay enough attention to Japanese politics to realise that 'Sudou' is also the name of the Foreign Minister. She's seventeen! "He's the one who set that fire! And you know there was an elementary school trip going on at the time?! I bet he did that on purpose! He was a total freak!"
A light pause. "Just, uh... he was. Um -- see -- there was this strange young man in a Black Mask that appeared and shot him, when the officer was about to arrest him." And a longer pause, before Isabeau admits, her tone growing less boisterous by the second, "... there was a lot of blood."
She shakes her head, and clears her throat. "Anyway!" There's the energy back. "The bullet was super weird, and it super freaks me out, so I put it in a pencil case so it wouldn't get its weird mojo all over me. Like, this thing is intensely haunted? The most haunted. I figured if anyone knew what was up, it'd be you, sooo..."
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
"Indeed they should have." Vivienne agrees with a wise nod. She's been in a jovial mood up to this point - but her expression turns more serious when Isabeau mentions the Joker Killer. She's aware of the rumor of course, but, that name... That's new.
"Sudou, you said?" Vivienne asks. Vivienne is not seventeen. She is, in fact, a little over twice that - but she does know the name of the Foreign Minister. A family name shared with the supposed Joker Killer... "Mm. That certainly seems in line with the ghastly behavior one would expect."
He was, Isabeau clarifies. The Joker Killer was murdered before he could be arrested.
"...I am... sorry, you had to witness that, Isabeau, dear." Vivienne apologizes genuinely.
She is, ultimately, quite grateful that she has an outlet to put on a cheerier mood.
"Excellent thinking. I am quite intrigued by the prospect." Vivienne praises. "Haunted, hm? I am quite curious about that. Let me take a look..."
She opens a drawer, removing her blacksmithing gloves and slipping them on. She reaches for the lid of the pencil case, looking to Isabeau briefly before, carefully, opening it.
She studies the shard carefully... and then, picks it up. She rolls it in her hand, studying it from every angle... She does all of this in silence before returning that fragment to the pencil case, shutting it once more.
"...That is an awful piece of material, isn't it? 'Haunted' is certainly a good description of it." Vivienne comments, her tone still, somehow, bright. "It felt as if I wished to jump out of my own skin merely holding it."
She 'hm's again, a thoughtful expression crossing her face.
"I may need to do a few experiments to learn more. But this bullet... I've never seen anything like it." She observes. "I believe it would be wise to consult Eve for her opinion on the matter..."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Yeah," Isabeau nods. "Why, you know him?" Watch the news, Isabeau!!
"... it's not like I've never seen a dead body," Isabeau adds, quietly, when Vivienne apologises. "Just... mom drowned, so... it was different."
Oh, no.
Her mother drowned, and that zeppelin crashed over the ocean...
ANYWAY, NEVER MIND ALL THAT!
Isabeau gets out of Vivienne's way, only to promptly lean around her shoulder to spy on her work anyway. The horrible shard might be super haunted, but Isabeau is also super curious!! "Right?! Mega haunted!" Isabeau might insist she's just like anyone on the team, but she is, in fact, unmistakably a teenager. "Maybe I should have brought out my scanning equipment too... it's okay, I'll do that later." All her fancy thermal cameras and electro-magnetic sensors and other doodads which are assuredly all just measuring background noise, she means. Isabeau certainly thinks it will help her find a real ghost.
... though, the fact that she didn't think to do that when she got home kind of speaks to the lie of her great mental state, too. She's normally so prepared!!
"Oh, yeah! If anyone's heard anything, it'd be Eve," Isabeau nods, firmly, before a troubled frown takes its place on her face. "... but if you've never seen anything like it, isn't that, like... kind of a huge deal? You've seen pretty much everything, Viv."
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
...Ah. That response. ...Well, she can hardly blame her. She can't say she knew much about France's government at seventeen, and she'd lived there her whole life.
"Well... this nation's Foreign Minister is a man named Tatsuzou Sudou, dear. A coincidence, perhaps - but too similar to overlook." Vivienne explains.
And there it is. Vivienne offers her a sympathetic look.
"...Indeed. It is... a terrible thing." She replies. She shuts her eyes for a moment. "...Do let your father know, too."
...There are some things a parent is probably better at handling.
Vivienne doesn't object when Isabeau elects to lean around her shoulder to spy. That kind of curiosity is to be encouraged, so as long as she's not getting in the way.
"A wonderful idea." Vivienne agrees with a nod. She doubts they'll pick anything up that she hasn't noticed - but she doesn't want to discourage her.
"Indeed." Vivienne agrees - and then Isabeau points something out. "It is, indeed, quite the huge deal."
She considers the pencil case once more.
"This bullet... we've encountered nothing of its like before, even in our previous escapades. And yet, it laid low such a fabled foe... It would be wise to learn all we can of it." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Really? Would the son of a Minister really be wrapped up in murders and stuff?" Isabeau really has no idea.
(To be fair, for once, she's got to have the same reaction as most of her neighbours. It's super normal to not be able to believe it.)
"Uh, yeah," she scratches at her cheek, glancing away. "I told him a bit at dinner, so..."
You know, in between sulking.
It'll probably be fine.
Amongst the things Isabeau is comically ignorant of: the fact that she's being encouraged. (That means it's working!) And so, she looks quite pleased with herself, having noticed a Crucial Detail. "If you've never seen something like this before, that must mean there's another new problem around here," Isabeau insists. "Like that Atelier I was telling you guys about!" She made her Dossier Report available to everyone, of course. She made sure everyone saw it. It is leaps and bounds ahead of the earlier notes she took on Tartarus. "But it's weird that all this stuff is happening in Tokyo... I wonder if there's stuff going on back home, too?"
(France. She means France. Inaba? Never heard of it.)
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
"It's certainly farfetched." Vivienne agrees. "But worth taking note of, I think."
Isabeau says she told Laurent a bit at dinner, and she nods, feeling just a bit internally relieved.
"Good." She replies.
As for the matter of the bullet... Isabeau assumes that must mean that there's another new problem, and Vivienne is inclined to agree.
"I imagine so. Ateliers, and now this..." Vivienne considers. She saw those notes, of course - and definitely appreciates the progress Isabeau has made in her report-making abilities. "There is something happening, certainly, and we would do well to keep our eyes and ears open."
She raises another possibility - if there's so much happening in Tokyo, is there stuff going on back home, too? ...It's a good question. So much has happened. Even they've been drawn back into action...
"I wonder. I haven't looked in on goings-on back home in quite some time..." ...Not that she has any connections left there, but she doesn't bring that up. "If there are, word may simply have not yet gotten out..."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Stranger things have happened... but man, that would take the cake, Isabeau thinks.
(She may, in unrelated news, get some cake pretty soon. 'Congratulations on surviving' cake. That's a normal event to get cake for.)
"Yeah, it's gotta be something. Man... those stupid kids said I was being arrogant taking the Atelier on alone," Isabeau folds her arms, scowling. "One of them even slapped me, did you know that? Even though she was totally on the outs with all of them, too! That awful Takeba girl! Such a hypocrite! Even the grown woman who was there with them wanted to gang up on me... her hair buns were stupid." That would be the infamous Umie Akabane, then.
And was it arrogant? Isabeau conveniently doesn't report on that part. Instead, she grinds her axe a little more: "But what was the point of getting everyone with a Persona together...? Even though we were all there, the museum was still totally destroyed... I had my hands full looking after the kids! That hopeless woman from the magazine -- like, Coolest?" It's a teen gossip mag, so Isabeau might well know better, "-- she broke the zeppelin, so that went down, too... if the people gathering are incompetent, numbers really don't matter." Well, it's easier to dismiss everyone as incompetent than to admit there's sometimes no winning, anyway. "That Black Mask man, he dared anyone to stop him, and everyone was just -- cowardly! Every one of them! I should have just done it myself, but even the officer insisted everyone freeze... just because he took a little girl hostage. If any of them had backed me up, I could have handled it just fine..."
(Translation: she's still blaming herself for not stopping him.)
"Ugh... I guess even if stuff was happening back home, it's smarter for whoever's there not to say anything about it." Grump, grump, grump. "Making a big deal out of anything Supernatural just... makes it more complicated."
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
Vivienne listens politely as Isabeau vents. Her expression is suitably sympathetic when she says she got slapped. It doesn't sound like she's making a lot of friends... and it certainly seem like she's been having a hard time.
If this is how she chooses to address those difficult feelings, then she won't interrupt her while she's on a roll.
"Certainly, it's who you have that matters... Though one doesn't always have the luxury of choosing." Vivienne comments. "Use what you have, not what you wish you had, and all that."
She considers Isabeau for a moment.
"Still... it is best that you did not engage him. You retrieved a valuable item and useful information - I'd say you've already done admirably, wouldn't you? A Hunter must assess their target before they strike - we would not step foot into a Foraine unprepared, and it is the same for unknown foes." Vivienne offers. She might just be trying to soften the blow.
As for things happening back home...
"Indeed. It is quite a foreboding sign when something supernatural becomes a 'big deal." Vivienne agrees. "Should it become significant enough that we hear of it even here... That would be a sign that things are going, perhaps... rather poorly, I should say."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau has SO many feelings. She's pretty sure no one has ever had feelings as big as this, except, mysteriously, for the very emotional music she puts on as backing track for them all.
Presumably those people imagined having emotions that massive.
"Right, right, resourcefulness..." Isabeau frowns, her fingers drumming on her broad arm. "But if they're no good, I'd just as soon leave them where I found them!"
Still, Vivienne suggests caution... and Isabeau heaves a deep sigh. "I guess you're right," she admits, because Vivienne is, like, one of the few people she'll actually listen to. "Like... I guess it would have been pretty stupid to fall for his bait when we don't know anything about him... well, that awful bun woman said that he'd sniped someone clear across a Palace, so maybe that's a good place to start. We really don't know that much about Palaces, huh...?"
Her frown turns thoughtful, as she thinks about it. "Well," she supposes, "I guess we might as well solve Japan's problems, while we're here. We can fix France when we go back!"
Isabeau is still so hopeful about getting out of here, huh...
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
"I'm sure they'd meddle even so. They seem the type." Vivienne comments. But Isabeau admits she's at least right about it being better that she didn't engage, and Vivienne nods.
"Indeed. But we're aware of him now." She replies. He sniped someone clear across a Palace... "Did he now? So this isn't the first time..."
Palaces, though...
"No... no more than anyone else, alas." Vivienne admits. "Perhaps we should look into that."
Isabeau proposes, then, that they might as well solve Japan's problems. Vivienne chuckles.
"Indeed. I, for one, would rather not be left out of the excitement." She agrees.
It doesn't escape her notice, though... When, not if. ...Well, perhaps it's better that she has hope.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"They're always meddling," Isabeau huffs, even though she's the one meddling half the time.
(Yeah, but she's rubber and they're glue, so the meddlesomeness bounces off of her and sticks to them!!!)
"There were these other people in masks who seemed like they were familiar with that Black Mask, too... oh, but there was another one of them who was actually quite impressive when I saw her before, you know?" She adds, thoughtfully. "She said she'd made her greatsword all on her own... and it was as large as she was! Ixquic, she called herself..."
Wow! Isabeau said something nice and not awful about a fellow youth! Perhaps it's no surprise, though, that she'd regard someone making things themselves more favourably. She's a sculptor herself, after all.
"I suppose it is exciting," Isabeau says, tapping a finger to her chin. "How many people can say they experienced a Hindenburg-like disaster and walked away from it...? Besides, I'm a hero! I had Mielikki carry a boy all the way back to shore!" That's an amazing mental image, given that Mielikki, under Isabeau's influence, has grown faerie-like in her waspishness. She's tiny.
"... say, didn't they make a movie based on that back in the seventies?" Isabeau, don't suggest watching the disaster movie about the horrible traumatic thing you just experienced -- "We should watch that!" -- ISABEAU FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Well, no one can say she's not the bravest kid on the block.
<Pose Tracker> Vivienne Sournois has posed.
Vivienne chuckles once again as Isabeau huffs that they're always meddling. She can already imagine how things have gone.
Isabeau continues, to speak of other people in masks who were familiar with the one in the Black Mask. Vivienne nods thoughtfully. She's seen a few who go about in masks already - though it draws her interest, then, when Isabeau calls one of them impressive. That's high praise, coming from her.
"She made it herself, you say? That is rather impressive. A weapon that size requires careful consideration. It's easy to create something too unwieldly to properly use..." Vivienne considers. "I would be quite interested in seeing her handiwork for myself some time, I think!"
Vivienne, naturally, has a high opinion of those who create and wield their own weapons. She's long thought that bond capable of drawing out more power from the piece.
She smiles, then, as Isabeau admits that it is exciting.
"Indeed. Certainly, it's not the sort of thing one experiences every day." She agrees. More than that, she's a hero? She saved a boy? ...Vivienne does, indeed, picture that in her head. She wonders what the boy must have thought of that. "That is something to be commended. Excellent work, Isabeau, dear."
And Isabeau has a movie request! Vivienne considers that thoughtfully for a moment. Would it to be smart to watch a movie that cuts so close so soon be a good idea?
...Well, when someone makes a request, she can hardly say no.
"Yes, I believe so... and I may, in fact, have it. Shall I queue it up for us?" Vivienne offers.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"She's in the business of fighting demons, and people who are as bad as demons, apparently," Isabeau says, of Ixquic. "So maybe she'll show up hunting a Quarry, one day..."
Demons, beasts, potato, pohtahto. Obviously they're not as bad as demons, though. She just said she was a hero! The biggest hero there!! (Isabeau, other people were also there. Did you see that one quiet boy who rescued several children on his massive skeleton?)
The boy, luckily, totally brought Isabeau's story that she was a witch who knew a levitation spell... a levitation spell which had to pick him up by the back of his shirt like he was a lion cub. "Naturally!" She chirps, cheerfully. "It wasn't even hard!"
It was SO hard. It was so hard she CRIED. God willing, Laurent will never betray her weakness...
"Yeah!" Isabeau pumps a fist, a savage grin crossing over her face. "Let's do it!!"
She's going to spend the whole movie talking down the horrors and insisting that she could have gotten out of them.
Isabeau, you were flying over an ocean.
Isabeau, you have a Persona.
Isabeau, please...