2026-05-07: Hot Messes
- Log: 2026-05-07 Hot Messes
- Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Niko Kirisaki
- Where: Double Slash, Aoba Way, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: May 07, 2026
- IC Date: Monday, November 05, 2012
- Summary: While in the area to observe the ongoing situation with the cultists in Aoba Park, Yanagi and Niko run into each other again and have a friendly conversation that quickly turns deep.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
One would think that a place full of delicate electronics would not also be a place where you could get not just drinks but also full meals.
*slurrrrrp~*
One would be wrong.
Yanagi Nagisa, when she comes to Sumaru, usually sticks to Hirasaka thanks to that being where Mr. Tomi is. However, with the cultists gathering in Aoba Park, she's recently been hanging out in Aoba too. Double Slash is an internet cafe, and she isn't that interested in computers, but it does have an aquarium that takes up an entire wall, and it's mesmerizing and soothing to look at.
So Yanagi is doing precisely that... while having a big old plate of spaghetti with a side of milk tea. Her lacy dress of marine patterns remains pristine thanks to Yanagi having had made a drape of napkins to serve as a bib, but her face is a mess, and she clearly doesn't care.
Who put this on the menu?? The clerk in the back, a checked-out-looking teen boy, doesn't seem to care either way either.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
While most commonly found hanging about in the more sketchy areas of Port Island, Niko Kirisaki is one who likes to get around, keep herself occupied in one way or another. Any particular Happenings Of Interest may draw her attention, as long as it's fun, a word she has a very broad definition for.
The internet can fix the definition, if you know where to look. Jin is obviously the bigger nerd, with his own rig and everything. Niko, if she needs a bigger screen than the one on her phone, will pop into places like this from time to time. Regularly enough for the dude looking after things here to somehow, impossibly, look even more tired, when in comes the pink-haired street punk, headed straight over to the counter. She flashes a bright smile as she aims fingerguns in the other teen's direction.
"Yo, what's-your-face! Coffee and one of your fancy sandwiches please~"
And sometimes it's just this, her coming in for a snack in between other activities... which currently include keeping an eye on those zombie people out there. They're not doing much of anything now, but as was proven a few days ago, that could rapidly change, and has been deemed Decently Of Interest on the Niko Scale, patent pending.
She's dressed differently from before, now in her more common mostly black ensemble of a crop top, shorts, an open mini-jacket, sneakers, and a length of steel chain worn as if it were a belt. None are in particularly good condition, and if it were ever a fitting choice, this isn't really the right time of year for it. Maybe the point is show off her strikingly muscular physique, it certainly looks like that might be by design.
It doesn't take her very long to notice a familiar face nearby, messy though it might be. "Oh hey, it's--" The lady who's name she never ended up getting. But she'll wave as if they've known each other forever anyway. "--you! Didn't expect to see you again so soon. Live around here or somethin'?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Decently Of Interest on Yanagi Scale at that! It's very similar to the Niko Scale, save that something doesn't need to be fun--broadly defined or not--for her to want to experience it.
All things are worth experiencing, good and bad. When you're doomed to die young, and you've already endured plenty of suffering, why hold yourself back?
She does look up, blinking wide lead-gray eyes, when Niko enters and orders. Her outfit isn't as eye-catching as before--not when it's all black like that--but she too has casual days. The chain belt is a cool look. Yanagi likes it.
When Niko notices her, she smiles a bright, spaghetti sauce-red smile and waves right back. "Niko~! I thought I might see you. You and your friends seemed very interested in that cult over in the park!" she replies. Twirling a fork in her spaghetti without looking, she continues, "I don't, but I'm very curious to see what happens with that cult to. So here I am! Would you like to come sit next to me?"
There aren't tables per se, but the computers are right next to each other, so that much is easy enough.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko would have to deny there's much similarity on those scales, hers certainly don't include any bad things. She's trying to take her mind OFF the bad things life is full of! She for one will definitely not be looking for the kind of poor excuses for candy Yanagi was snacking on before.
What hasn't changed from last time at all are Niko's accessories. Those are always the same, all the time. She did figure out what gave away her name before, tracing back the thought pattern 'makes fancy accessories' -> 'probably paid a lot of attention to accessories'. "That's my name~", she says happily, because she normally has to go through more effort for people to default to her preferred first name basis.
"Ehhh," she says with a handwobble, on the level of interest involved. "Would've been more interesting if they knew what they were talking about, but I'm starting to think maybe they don't really? Or it's something else than I thought it was, whichever." Gotta match her expectations entirely for her to not be a little disappointed. But what can she say, she's an optimist. "Still, yeah, curious, me too!"
Upon receiving her order, Niko is quick to accept the offer, making her way to Yanagi's... non-table, and taking the seat next to it. "Didn't get to chat a whole lot before, did we? All I know is you make fancy accessories and eat weird maybe-candy, I don't even know your name!"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It would be strange to Yanagi if Niko had been unable to figure it out. She sees that Niko is indeed wearing the same accessories. The same is not true for Yanagi herself; although she's wearing hair clips, these ones are silver and aquamarine to match her dress, and the rest of her accessories include a mother-of-pearl cameo choker and matching anklets.
Niko's happy response to her name gets a music note from Yanagi. Most people are upset about her instant first-name-yobisute, but are too polite to protest. It's rare to meet someone who's happy about it!
"Hmm? What did you think it was?" Yanagi wonders, eyes blinking wide. She soon smiles, though, as Niko takes her up on her offer. "We didn't! I'm glad we were able to meet again--you and your friends seem interesting too!"
She indicates herself with a slim hand of long, delicate fingers with pearlescent nail polish. Looking at her face, she's got similar make-up applied with a light hand on her face... possibly including lipstick, though that much is impossible to tell at present. "My name is Yanagi!"
And then, because she's decided she's twirled her fork enough, she sticks it in her mouth. It is an absurd amount of spaghetti. One might start to understand how her face got so messy.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko would claim that she 'doesn't sweat the small stuff', which is one way of saying that she doesn't pay very close attention to details unless she has personal reason to. Only reason she cared at all about her own outfit was around Halloween time. Fashion is... well, not lost on her, but not something that she knows a lot about, nor has her focus.
Yanagi is obviously different. Changing styles, having a fancy vibe in general, even if Niko knows little about it she'd like to think she can tell a fashionable lady when she sees one. She's quick to assume that also means they must live in different worlds. But it's not like anything like that ever stopped her from being friendly. Or treating them like they're already friends, that may be a more accurate way to describe the way she acts.
And, for the sake of friendship... serious topics are best avoided, or discussed less seriously. Which is why she waves a dismissive hand at the question. "Oh, nothing big, nothing big. Just thought there might be something to the things they were saying, about this world being a punishment or somethin'? I could see it. Probably just sayin' shit though."
She takes a moment to take a big ol' bite out of her sandwich, chuckling with her mouth full, but swallowing before speaking. "'Interesting' huh? You mean in the sense that we look like bad news, right? You can just say it, I mean, you're not wrong." And clearly not something she's concerned about, continuing in the same breath with a smile that looks genuine enough, "Nice to meet you properly, Yanagi!" Even if she hadn't only given her first name, the rules have been established, first name it is.
She snerks, then openly laughs at Yanagi's way of eating. "What the crap, seriously. You look so fancy, and yet you're all," she gestures, "Like that, when you eat. I..." There's a bit of an odd pause, before Niko continues like there hadn't been one. "Well I guess I'm not one for dainty bites either, but like, not much to ruin about me. With you it's like, bit of a waste to mess yourself up, dontcha think?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It comes of working for a high-end boutique. You come to care about relevant things. Of course, to call what Yanagi does there 'work' might sometimes stretch the imagination... Tsumugi is a lenient boss, what can one say?
Yanagi, too, is one to be friendly immediately to the people she meets, because she's not long for this world and there's no point in waiting. However, for that same reason, she doesn't stand on ceremony, either with friends or enemies. So when Niko tries to dismiss the matter, she tilts her head the other way, still chewing. Once she swallows--out of a desire not to choke rather than a sense of propriety--she wonders, "Why do you think this world is a punishment?" She doesn't sound dismissive, dubious or critical; she clearly wants to know.
She could see it too, after all. She's got her own reasons for thinking the same, even. However, what she's interested in is the specifics of why Niko thinks that.
"Yup," Yanagi replies, unabashed and unashamed. Bad news for one isn't necessarily bad for another--and as a Navigator, she can tell from their Resonance that they're a group of Persona Users, too. She smiles back, eyes squinting shut. "You too, Niko~"
Om nom nom, goes more of that spaghetti. There's only one more (large) bite left, and as she chews this one, she blinks over at Niko. She smiles again. "Henk oo!" she replies around a mouthful of noodles. However, as Niko continues--odd pause and all--she makes it clear that, odd as she is, she didn't mean it as a compliment. Yanagi considers this, and her, as she twirls that last bit of noodles.
"Not really. It would be a shame to dirty this dress," since Tsumugi made it and she loves them, "but there's not much to ruin about me either."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Work is work! Whatever definition of a livelihood you have, few indeed are the ones that don't require some form of work to support it. Niko does her 'odd jobs', as she'd put it, which is a living... even if it's far from an ordinary one. Such is life. This life, anyway.
Her thoughts in that area aren't pleasant for anyone. It'd be best to share as little as possible, certainly not with people who wouldn't understand. Yanagi doesn't look like someone who would. Which is why being asked so directly is met with a pensive frown, and an eloquent "..." One can just about see the question 'what's your angle' in her expression, before it's replaced by a smile, and a more direct inquiry to that effect. "Heh. You're somethin' else, Yagani. Why're you so interested in what a random street punk thinks? You don't think it's gonna be nonsense at best, something truly vile at worst?"
It doesn't do anything to ruin the atmosphere for her. She can still manage a perfectly pleasant exchange of introductions. Laugh jovially, at a fancy woman with very non-fancy eating habits. But it's that last part, those final words of Yanagi's response, that gives her pause. Making her think that maybe she'd made a mistaken assumption. There seems to be a story there - more importantly, a like-minded mindset.
"...Is that so?" Niko stares down into her coffee cup for a moment, before downing the whole thing in one gulp. Letting out a seemingly satisfied sigh afterwards, her following, casual words are quite the opposite of satisfaction.
"'What did I do to deserve this life?'"
She lets that hang there for a second before continuing, "Maybe what it takes is thoughts like that, to see things more clearly. To really start seeing how broken the world is. Would it really be so strange, if it wasn't just you, but everyone who is being punished?" She rubs her fingers on the edge of her cup, continuing to stare into it. "Just seemed to me like, maybe the zombies realized a truth that most people don't, or can't, without becoming one of them."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
This life indeed.
"Hmmm... I suppose it doesn't matter that much. I don't really care about what 'matters,' though. For example, you just said something that makes it clear you think something pretty shouldn't be wasted with ugly behaviors or habits. However, here I am doing them, and it's neither harming nor affecting anyone. Even if it did affect anyone, it'd only be one or two people." She nods to Niko, then the clerk. "Compared to the pleasure I'm getting out of living the way I please, does that really matter?"
She smiles. "There are some who'd say it would, I'm sure. But those people are probably ones who'd destroy themselves before inconveniencing anyone else. It's all well and good to be mindful of others, but doesn't one's own self matter? What's the point of being mindful of others if it destroys you? Who are others supposed to be mindful of if you do that?"
She picks up her fork, spearing the last shreds of saucy noodles. "In other words, I'm asking to satisfy my own curiosity and for no other reason. Whether your viewpoint is vile nonsense or not, I want to catch a glimpse of it, because you've caught my interest." She waggles that fork playfully at her. "I wouldn't do this for just anyone! There's seven billion people in this world! I'm not that interested that I'd want a peek at the views of each and every single one! I've got things to do!" She giggles. "But I like your skelly dress and your chain belt, and you like being called by your first name by a stranger, so I want to know more about you. Also, of course, you're a Persona User."
Chomp. That would seem to be the end of it... except then Niko shares back. Yanagi gives her a thoughtful look at that question, nodding slowly; even without a full mouth, she'd wait for her to continue. Inevitably she does. Yanagi chews and chews and chews and swallows. Only now that her plate is clean does she lift her napkin drape and start to clean her face.
"Hmmm... Do you know what Duchenne muscular dystrophy is, Niko?" she wonders. Without waiting for an answer, she continues, "It's a genetic disease that causes one's muscles to change into fat over time. Because the muscles don't grow back, one eventually loses the ability to do, well, anything... like walk. Or breathe. It's always fatal, since there is no cure, and those with it usually die in childhood. It predominantly affects boys, but extremely rarely it can appear in girls."
She picks up and sips her milk tea. She sets it down with a now-clean smile. There is indeed lipstick there. She must be using a waterproof brand, because it hadn't smudged a millimeter. "A girl who was born with that condition... She would definitely think, over and over, 'What did I do to deserve this life,' don't you imagine?"
If she hadn't already, perhaps now Niko will notice a sleek, polished walking cane hooked onto the edge of the computer table on Yanagi's other side.
Criss-crossing her fingers, she leans her chin on her hands. "I do see what you mean, Niko. All that lives will one day die. All of us must inevitably suffer the pain of separation. Given this fact, it would be natural to believe this world is a punishment for everyone in it."
...Yet, she doesn't seem at all perturbed.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Well damn, Niko thinks but doesn't say. Most people back off at least a little bit when she implies 'street thug business is none of yours'. Or, what they say only gives her fodder to push back more, leading to the same end result. The understanding that she can get along with anyone perfectly fine, but there are limits to consider. She's not saying that for her, she's saying it for others. Doing them a favor, really.
But that's because most people are simple. Shallow, phrased less kindly. All they do is follow unspoken rules without questioning them. They don't really care, they just make it sound that way in order to get along. Nothing wrong with that, as long they don't pretend too much.
But it seems Yanagi wasn't pretending, was she? That was a LOT more of a reaction than Niko bargained for, not leaving room to get a word in edgewise. There's not even anything there she can find fault with to argue against. The normally so talkative street punk is struck silent, just sort of staring following all that, until finally managing, "W-well, that's... pretty good reasons..."
She's got to switch gears after that, and the way she tries to do so is, "You say you want to know more, but I'm sure there's really not that much more to me here." Which is a pretty odd way of phrasing, and once she realizes that, she clams up. Until Yanagi's words prompt her to say more, and after she does...
The mention of a disease causes Niko's eyes to grow wide with immediate concern. Whether she fully knows what that is or not, at the very least she seems to realize that it is indeed a serious condition that is being mentioned, and the most likely reason for that. In this matter, she seems perceptive enough, reacting to the full description with only the one quiet word, "...Shit."
What else could she even say? 'I'm sorry?' That's not what she would want to hear, she can only imagine Yanagi wouldn't appreciate it either. Especially not when said so matter-of-factly. As if having accepted all that. She can only conclude that this person doesn't just understand. This person is much stronger than she is.
"...I believe you," she finally decides are the best words to speak. That, and to repay in kind. "Then... I'll tell you about me. The real me."
She turns to Yanagi, expression serious, as she places a hand on her chest. "This... this isn't who I really am. It's something that was done to me, and now I'm stuck. I didn't want to be like this. I didn't want to do the things I do. I was a good student. I was... I was going to be a doctor. I wanted to do everything I could to help people who suffer from diseases! But now...!"
She grits her teeth, angrily looking away, since the anger is not meant for Yanagi. "Someone... someone took everything I had away from me! And I... I won't stop, until I find a way to make things right. To return things to how they should be, for everybody. I'm sure that..."
She interrupts herself there, looking back to Yanagi. There are few who would say it about Niko, but the way she is right now, perhaps it isn't so difficult to believe that she genuinely cares about others. "It isn't fair. I want to believe that fate was supposed to be kinder to you."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi was definitely not pretending. There was a time in her life when she would have pretended, not out of simplicity or shallowness but because her circumstances are so upsetting that she wanted to avoid troubling anyone with them. These days, well--it's just as she says. What does that matter compared to her living freely, the way she desires? Who will it really hurt in the end, when she's going to die young anyway?
So when Niko is struck mute, then stammers out a response, she giggles. "They are! I'm glad you agree. So?"
However, when Niko tries to change tracks, Yanagi gives her another thoughtful look. "Oh? Perhaps so. Some people don't," she concedes, seeming amenable to accepting her denial on its face despite the clearly off phrasing. She, too, understands that many people are simple and shallow, and she doesn't hold that against them, even if she won't live that way herself.
Her gaze softens when Niko responds with that curse and, for a moment, nothing else. "It is shit," she agrees. It seems like she's clever and understanding, to get precisely what Yanagi's getting at. She's grateful or that, and so gives her time to figure out what her reaction will be. It's a hard thing for most people to react to, she knows well.
So when Niko offers up her true self in return, Yanagi shuffles in her seat to face her and pay full attention. Her smile fades at the words It's something that was done to me, her long eyelashes hooding. However, she doesn't interrupt, even when Niko interrupts herself.
"Thank you. That's kind of you, Niko. There isn't such a thing as fairness, though. That's something people made up. Things happen, pleasant and painful... that's all." She leans forward a little. "We can still feel how we like about them, though, so I won't tell you not to say that. Your anger belongs to you, and that's something no one can take away. Even if they try. And there are those who /will/ try, very hard, and very skillfully." She leans back. "But... you say 'someone' did it to you. Does that mean you don't know who? And what exactly do you mean by 'like this'?"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
There's something enviable about being that confident in your own assessment of the way things are. At the same time, Niko absolutely cannot do the same. Hope and optimism do the majority of the legwork for her. She believes things can improve exactly because accepting the way things are is something she absolutely can't do. Even her reaction to Yanagi's situation stems from refusal to accept that it's inevitable and unchangeable. Even if it should turn out that she's the only one who thinks anything can be done... that just means it's on her to prove herself right.
Is this a form of kindness? Even Niko isn't sure. Her true self had surely been kind. But that's not who she is now, is it? As for fairness... "...Guess maybe that was the wrong way to put it," she will admit to. "So then just... consider it my opinion that you didn't deserve to go through all this."
Questioned further, she shakes her head. "I know only what my friends told me. That Kirijo has to have had something to do with it, made them suffer too. Trying to get answers there, that might be one way."
Would it be the preferred way? Even Niko isn't sure. She wouldn't claim not to want revenge. But much more than that, she just wants back what was taken from her. She'll take whatever she can get.
The question of 'like this' prompts a blank blink, Niko having to think back to what she said only a moment ago. Evidently that was fully in the moment, not something she was thinking a lot about. "Oh... well, I meant, this body. This isn't what I really look like." Her expression turns pouty as she looks down at herself. "Girls in school were jealous of my chest size, for one thing." Her clothing may make it look like she's flaunting it, but as it happens, she isn't actually very happy about being all muscle, now.
She sighs, and shakes her head. "But, this is the body I'm stuck with, for now. Not forever, though. Won't let it be forever." So she has to believe. And with that thought, she finally smiles again. "So, for now, I'm just gonna keep moving, keep doing what I can. And you bet your ass I'm gonna find a way to do it. I mean, have you seen all the crazy shit going on? Ain't no way it's not possible to make it work for me, one way or another."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Oh, you don't need to rephrase it. It's your belief either way," Yanagi reassures Niko--or at least, it's her intent to reassure her. "But in that case, I will consider it so."
Her friends... In other words, the counter-cultists she'd been with at the park. Yanagi remembers them too. The name Kirijo is not immediately recognizable to her, and so she wonders, "Who's Kirijo?"
But then Niko reveals that it's her body itself that she meant. "Oh! How interesting. They changed your actual body?" Yanagi leans closer again to peer at Niko's muscular frame. It'd be quite enviable to her younger self. Right now, she's someone who paid attention to the fact that it's something Niko didn't want and was forced upon her. She looks back up at her with sympathetic eyes, then leans back again.
"I suppose my body was modified too, but that was done by the NWO," she muses, "and the modifications they did let me live a little longer, more comfortably. That doesn't mean it was a good thing, considering they were also forcing Personas on those around me..." Once again, her eyes lid. "So many erupted with demons that immediately slayed them. It's a wonder that anyone survived." Then she laughs a little. "Let alone someone like me!"
Niko smiles again, and Yanagi smiles back at her and claps her hands together. "What a wonderful spirit! There are so many strange and incredible things going on. If you were changed once, who's to say you can't change again?" She reaches out to take Niko's hands into her own, if she lets her. "I'll be rooting for you, Niko!"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko makes a face at the word 'Kirijo' being repeated back at her. "As in, the Kirijo Group. Everything you ever heard about evil companies, they probably did it. Problem is, they're a huge deal, and real good at hiding their dirt, not something you can go up against easily." Not directly, anyway. No reason to bring the SEES connection into it here.
Looking Niko over like that cannot be done for very long before the protest, "H-hey, you don't gotta stare at me like that." A typical reaction all the same, despite the claims of her current body feeling foreign it's still the one she's got. Those easily visible arm, leg and abdominal muscles are quite pronounced indeed, they would be a dream come true for anyone aspiring to be a professional athlete. ...But since she wanted to be a doctor, it's fairly safe to say that Niko never had such aspirations.
The evident sympathy is appreciated, when Yanagi casually drops a bombshell. "What the hell, the NWO did that?!" It's not that she never considered the NWO might have ways to attain her goal, but, well, stories like Yanagi's make it pretty clear why it's hard to believe there wouldn't be a catch. And this, specifically... "That sounds just like the kind of shit Kirijo was up to, do all these bastards have the same playbook?"
Makes it hard to think of something to even say. Perhaps Yanagi owes them her life, but... would you really say 'I'm glad' about the way it was done, forced into a new state of being that you never asked for? Niko obviously wouldn't.
Nothing for it but to go all-in on the positivity, cleanse all the bad vibes away through the promise of a better future. A tried and true coping mechanism, all the better when encouraged. And she should be! If she had the power to, then everyone would get everything they ever wanted, she'd see to that! Accepting Yanagi's hands in addition to the encouragement, she brightly promises, "You bet, Yanagi! I'll do my best, for your sake too!"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Oh, it's a company," Yanagi says. She doesn't seem impressed, but it does make sense to her in context. They're the ones who'd have money to disappear someone and do whatever they want to her body, to the point that she looks like someone else entirely.
"But I do, because I want to get a closer look," Yanagi replies. Still, she leans back. She understands what Niko was really trying to say, that being stared at like that makes her uncomfortable. Yanagi simply doesn't live by those mores anymore.
"Oh--are you also an Artificial Persona User?" she wonders, eyebrows furrowing in concern. At normal times like this, they register just the same to her senses as a "natural" Persona User. However, if they changed her body, then it makes sense they might have induced her Persona as well...
As for the NWO, even if they did do her some good, they also caused her immense harm. That more than balances it out, in her opinion. "It certainly sounds similar. I wonder if they're connected..."
All-in on positivity is a great coping mechanism! Yanagi beams at Niko, eyes squinting shut momentarily. "Same here!"
They both have things they can do to make the world better for everyone.