2026-06-28: The Jagged Shape of Our Impressions
- Log: The Jagged Shape of Our Impressions
- Cast: Minato Arisato, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: Paulownia Mall
- OOC Date: 2026-06-28
- IC Date: Sat, Dec 01 2012
- Summary: Someone's been watching Minato for a while, now. Yanagi chooses her moment to intercede directly -- and Minato, trying to give her an honest answer, finds himself tangled in the confusion of his past and his identity. But ultimately, a 'thing' can't invite Yukari out for Christmas... if only for that sort of reason, he must be no thing.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
It's two weeks until finals...
...
But since you've been studying, you feel pretty good!
There's more to life than books, though.
"All right."
That's what Minato has to say, as he walks out of Tatsumi East Police Station, the friendly little cove in the mall staffed by Officer Kurosawa. That man watches him, as he leaves, easily and nonchalantly accepting Kurosawa's praise over one of SEES's less dramatic rescues.
People go missing, every so often...
When that happens, it's SEES's job to retrieve them from Tartarus.
His hands bury in his pockets. Half of him is here, in Paulownia Mall; half of him is in his headphones, listening to the track that always seems to come on shuffle when he's visiting.
WHAT'S THAT TUNE!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvyyJqMY-58 Persona 3 Reload - Paulownia Mall
And half of him is...
Well, it's good that they can rescue those people.
But they'll keep disappearing...
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
There's two weeks until finals...
...and Yanagi dropped out of high school ages ago, so that's irrelevant to her!
She's also not involved in the rescue of regular people who are drawn into Tartarus. She's not against it, but generally speaking, she comes to Port Island for two reasons: 1) to visit the lady who runs Mayoido Antiques for business (as she is doing now) or 2) to investigate those particularly strong Shadows that appear on the full moon during the Dark Hour. As for that second one, when that happened, the Shadow was over in Sumaru, so it's not even a guarantee.
Right now, she exchanges money and goods with the Mayoido lady; some of the equipment she trades is for some very splendid gems from deep within Tartarus, and that's precisely what Yanagi needs for her business. Materials for materials, and she gets up with the support of her cane and bows, then heads out.
Today's outfit is a dreamy seafoam green dress with a warm, textured fabric, long sleeves and a long skirt that layer in ruffles. An off-white shawl wraps around her shoulders and upper arms, clasped together at the throat with a shell cameo with a blue background set in gold, matching a delicate filigree chain that encircles her waist and left wrist. Twin pair pins, aquamarine set in gold, pin her long, wavy, ash gray hair to each side, keeping it flowing free but out of her face. Her shoes are low-heeled ankle boots, supple and supportive; they're a pain to put on but do make walking easier, particularly in the season's cold weather. Her cane is sleek and polished and has an only trigger-like bit to its handle.
The jewels, and other valuables, are in a satchel that loops across her chest underneath the shawl. If someone snatched her purse, there's really very little she could do about it, so it's best to wear such things to discourage attempts from happening in the first place.
As she emerges, the normal thing to do would be to simply leave. This is the majority of Yanagi's business here in Paulownia Mall much of the time. However, instead of doing that, she tup-tup-tups through the mall, strolling by the fountain, passing various random shoppers...
...until she comes to a stop in front of Minato, half-drifting in the world in his headphones. She'll block his way until he focuses in on her. Then:
"Hello!" she says brightly, a pink-painted smile on her lips. "We meet again! Minato Arisato, wasn't it?" She holds out her free hand. "I'm so delighted to have a chance to talk to you properly!"
They've always encountered each other when there was something to fight before.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Perhaps there's a certain character to that antique woman's gaze which is familiar...
... but there are things in life Minato's not exposed to, either.
(Clothes? It's his Gekkoukan uniform, obviously; there was school in the morning. Somehow, he manages to wear it well, despite it being a uniform.)
Malls are the seat of fashion worldwide, of course -- so there are plenty of people not in uniform. But just as there are hundreds of Gekkoukan students and only one dispossessed of the mystique Minato holds, so, too, do all the tucked-away fashionistas of Paulownia bleed away to reveal folds on folds on folds.
He thinks of Apsaras; blue rather than green, but that shawl really does evoke her scarf...
Yes, he has focused on her. In doing so, his own footsteps have stopped, though his hands remain in his pockets.
But... does he realise she was blocking his path...?
She speaks his name, and holds out her hand, and he blinks at it for a moment with those hollow blue eyes of his... before he takes his hand from his pocket to shake hers.
"You've been watching me," is what he says, when he looks up from her nails to her eyes again.
"They called you 'Yanagi'... Yanagi Nagisa, is that right?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Persona-based fashion... If that isn't something Peacock Silk is doing already, it should be.
If Minato doesn't realize she blocked his way, that's fine too. Yanagi did that chiefly to get his attention; it's a crowded place and he has headphones on, so merely calling out to him or waving an arm wouldn't have guaranteed he'd notice her. You would definitely notice someone who walks right in front of you, though, even if that ended up being because you walk right into them.
Fortunately for both of them, that doesn't happen. He simply blinks at her and shakes her hand.
"Yes! Because you're so interesting," she replies cheerily. "Your sister Minako, too, but you're the one who's here right now!" Minako especially after Yanagi bore witness to Mors. What a fascinating manifestation of Death that was!
"That's right!" she confirms when he relates her name. "Would you like to sit down somewhere together, or shall we walk?" She has a cane, but that won't stop her; Minato might simply have to slow his stride so she doesn't fall behind.
Either way he chooses, she continues, "You're able to summon lots of different Personas. I want to talk about that! It's such an unusual phenomenon, and I'd like to hear what you think about it!"
No care at all given to the fact that they're in public--but then again, they're in a mall, where people are so focused on their own business that they just walk past without paying attention.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Please deliver Minato and Minako matching Jack Frost and Pyro Jack onesies immediately. Thanks for your consideration.
The music's still playing, but half of Minato is with Yanagi, now; and half to the music, and half to the beat, sixty by one step eighty-five to the next seven six, a slow fifty...
Hundreds of heartbeats.
And yet -- are they in unison?
"All right," he accepts her interest, amicably but without energy. He looks down to her cane, and he is silent, for a moment, as he processes the implications. Standing is something she needs support to manage, but...
He thinks of Akinari Kamiki, the young man who's always sitting on the bench by the playground at the local shrine... who's always so frustrated at his inability to do anything but sit there.
"I was going to get some coffee," he says, and declines to mention that he decided he was going to do that approximately fifteen seconds ago. "Would you like to come with me?"
... maybe it will weigh a little less heavily on her if she goes to the cafe with him, instead of just having to sit down in the middle of the mall.
And so he does lead the way there -- and it is not a large demand on him, to amble along. He might be a track and field star, but the trick to sprinting is conserving energy!
He orders coffee -- for himself and Yanagi, if she doesn't insist on paying her own way, and it's revealed in the process that he has an employee discount from his part-timing here -- and sits himself down; and it is in public, but they've got a nice little nook, and it's impolite to lurk around and listen in.
"When I came to Iwatodai, the train pulled in, and things got still," Minato relates, though his expression doesn't change. "I must have thought it was just quiet because it was the last train in... well, it was the Dark Hour, really." How does someone just think a time like that is... quiet...?
"Well, I took responsibility," he says, tapping a finger to the table. "After that, Igor told me I was a 'Wild Card'. I'm someone who can adapt to support the people around me... I am what they need me to be. And it's what they've needed which gives me strength, in turn... their hopes let me fuse strong Personas by balancing their needs against each other."
He's honestly trying to answer the question...
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Are they in unison?
Do they need to be? There is beauty in chaos and discord, too--every heartbeat an individual that syncs only when it so desires.
...That's how Yanagi would answer, anyway.
She does see the way Minato looks at her cane; it is something she frequently notices, because people are always taking in the ways in which her body is less capable than theirs. She hums when he suggests coffee without remarking on anything else, and nods. "That sounds lovely," she decides.
The two of them head over to Chagall Cafe. Yanagi is prepared to pay for herself, but Minato beats her to it, and she decides to let him to see where it goes. It turns out he has an employee discount, something she blinks in wonder at (her only experience with employment is Peacock Silk, where money is often an illusion and bartering and trading goods is a legitimate system of purchase). She sits at the nook with him, scooping her skirt underneath her as she goes, and hooks her cane on the edge of the table before she looks up to listen to him.
"Hmmmm," she murmurs again when he describes the Dark Hour as merely 'quiet.' It's not like he's wrong, and so she doesn't read into the fact that he also describes the experience as if he doesn't directly remember it. He goes on to describe being a Wild Card and how he 'is what others need him to be.' She clasps a hand to her cheek in thought.
"How interesting," she muses. Is that like or unlike Tsumugi? In some ways it is, and in some ways, it's quite different. Perhaps that's their individuality at work? (At play?)
They are both rather low-energy people in terms of their external expression, at least.
"What do you think it means for you that you can do this but most people can't?" she wonders next. "And also, you say it gives you strength, but... when do you get to be 'yourself'?"
And at the least, that's not a question she has ever thought to ask Tsumugi, who, despite their frequent fascination with others, is always incorrigibly themself.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Yanagi's viewpoint is precious, too. But does Minato know she can see where he's looking...?
... well, he's making an effort. Perhaps that's the best that can be said of young men in high school; he's growing into his sensitivity.
(Minato, as it happens, has his own experiences with unusual shop configurations; for instance, did you know that every time he visits the old couple at the strip mall book store, they end up giving him a snack? Though... he helps out there, too... but there's no way he couldn't, when he reminds them of their late son.)
"It means that I'm the Field Leader," Minato answers, quite practically. "Me and my sister, that is. Since we're more adaptable, we're able to help SEES succeed, regardless of which members are fighting in the battle."
He tilts his head, as the track shuffles, again...
BGM SHIFT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IsGnEWA8AI Persona 3 Reload - Burn My Dread
"But that's not what you're asking me," he realises, as he works through the brass tacks.
"The 'reason' why I can do this..."
He is not with Yanagi, any more, as he looks through her to the way fire absorbs that green light, too.
"I got back up, and..."
"I was still standing..."
"So..."
His lips part. Nothing comes out.
That's when coffee arrives.
"Thank you," he says, mildly, as he picks up his cup, every motion perfectly articulated to echo the people around him.
He sips it, quiet, for a moment.
"'Myself'," his answer quiet, too, "is a thing I find in the gifts I'm given. I'm still not sure what I'm describing... but I'll find that, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Whether he knows or not, it's all right. It can be irritating when others make a fuss about Yanagi's disability, but that's not what happened. He observed that she has a need for a walking cane and suggested a place where they can sit down as a part of the experience. That's as discreet and conscientious as most people can generally be. If anything, it's more annoying that he buys her coffee for her, but when she understood that he gets to pay less than most people do because he works here sometimes, she also understood that it's a boon he wants to take advantage of.
"That makes sense," she says. She did notice that he and his sister seemed to take charge a lot. Certainly his sister has a very powerful alternate Persona. "But..."
But that's not what she's asking him. She smiles and nods once.
He gives a very vague answer that trails off. She tilts her head. "I don't understand," she says bluntly.
The coffee arrives. She picks up her cup in her own way, and Minato mirrors her. She frowns a little, then takes a sip of her own.
She considers his next answer.
"Does that mean you don't know who 'you' are?" She tilts her head the other way. "Is that why you fill yourself with the people around you? So you can perform a 'you' anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Minato's responsible for his actions, and his actions here got him a discount!
Flawless logic.
"Sorry," he shakes his head, when he registers that Yanagi doesn't understand. "I don't, either. But it must have been that day... 'Ten Years Ago'. I think that I wasn't surprised to see those green streets... because it was green back then, too. Since then, I lived differently to other people... or something like that."
"It was normal, to me."
"Or... maybe I just wasn't surprised."
He sips at his coffee, again. It's black, so it's bitter. They say it can make you even more charming... he thought he couldn't get any more charming, but then a new day dawned. Never stop striving, huh?
"I guess not," he supposes, as his own head tilts. "But I don't want to resign myself reluctantly, either. Someone important to me taught me it's important for it to matter... so I spend more time thinking about what I want, now. That doesn't mean that what's expected of me doesn't matter, though... if something's a struggle, that just makes you stronger. Well, maybe who 'I' am doesn't fit the role I'm trying to fit, anyway... but there's nothing wrong with supporting people from behind, either. Even if it's traditional for someone like me to be in charge, it's not as if my decisions were all made already."
He pauses.
Yukari... Mitsuru... Suzume... Junpei... Koh... Reiya...
"Actually," he says, "I guess that's six someones... maybe you're right, Nagisa-san."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
It was green... ten years ago? The confusion doesn't dim from Yanagi's lead-grey eyes, but a certain thoughtfulness enters them too as she mulls over this statement. A way of living that is 'normal' for him but 'different' from others... That is something she can understand. Something fundamentally life-altering that only those who have experienced it could understand. And the 'green streets' refers to the Dark Hour, so...
"You woke up to the Dark Hour ten years ago?" She touches a finger to her chin. "I'm amazed that you still have your mind intact after all that time... Does that mean you've had your Persona all that time too? But, no... the way you talked about Igor and 'that day,' that sounds more recent?" She blinks at him. "Which is it?"
You can always be more charming. Never stop striving. Unless you're Yanagi, in which case your charm comes almost entirely from your appearance, because you no longer care to cater to other people's feelings.
He takes her questions in stride, which helps keep her from growing disappointed in him.
"There's nothing wrong with supporting people from behind, but you shouldn't stop being 'you' to do it. I support my friends, whom I love dearly, as a Navigator, but they're the ones who encouraged me to be 'me' even if it would've been more convenient to them if I were just a 'thing' that provides them support. I suppose in that way, we're alike..."
It is important for it to matter, and that is something that someone else taught her. Despite the goals Yanagi is helping work towards, she does value and appreciate bonds with others. She simply has a keen understanding of the suffering those same bonds can bring.
"...but it sounds to me like you're making it more important to yourself to be a 'thing' that is convenient to others than a 'person' in your own right," she concludes. Especially after those 'six someones.' She looks at him closely. "If you died today, Minato, do you think you would be missed because of the loss of your companionship, or the loss of what you do for others?"
Surely a Wild Card wouldn't be not missed. That much is not in question.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"I don't know," Minato answers, shaking his head. "I didn't know I had a power like Persona until I came to Iwatodai... I know that much. And I remember... there was fire... a crash. The road was rough... there was glass on it. There was glass in my hands. I was thrown through the glass, I guess. That's why I had to get up... they weren't getting up. With this strange iron smell... and metallic taste."
He pauses, still far away.
"... but cars don't work in the Dark Hour," he realises, as he works through it some more. "A car couldn't crash in the Dark Hour."
"Then... why do I... remember..."
Don't try to make sense of it yet, some deep wish for peace inside him urges his uneasy spirit, as his hand lifts, sharply, to grasp the side of his head. "Nn," is what he says, teeth grit.
Even if the bond's bringing him hardship, though, Minato's not about to sever it.
"You're not a thing," he insists, looking to her, as his hand lowers back down to his coffee cup.
"You're a human being... there's nothing more important than that."
Someone important to him taught him that one, too.
"... I wonder about that sometimes. I wonder if... people really die when they stop living. I watched Tatsuya Sudou die, but everyone still talks about him... there's even a Rumour in Sumaru about it. The memories inside people can't die so easily... so maybe every person is the shape they leave behind when they're gone. So I'd be missed because I have an important duty... but maybe it's how I fulfill it that they'd think about, too."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Fire. A crash. He had to get up because they weren't getting up.
"Oh," Yanagi utters, and finally she understands--at least some of it. There's clearly more of a mystery here, to both of them, as he realizesremembers that cars don't work during the Dark Hour, so why would he remember this? "That is strange," she muses. "I wonder why?"
She sees him grit his teeth and grab his head, though, and understands too: there is something there he is keeping buried, that he is afraid to unearth. There's a term in psychology for this. She doesn't remember it. She, too, understands keenly the wish to forget.
If only she could. But she doesn't hold that he has, at least in part, against him--so she says nothing more until he looks back at her.
"Correct. I'm not a thing," she replies. "Are you?"
A thing or not a thing? That's left vague. How Minato responds is more important, anyway.
Her eyes widen when Minato gives her a serious, thoughtful answer on what's left behind when people die. She bows her head, her face reflected in the darkness of her coffee. (Also black. Not because she likes it that way, but because even unpleasant things are worth experiencing.) For a moment, she's silent; then she nods. That thing he only partly remembers... that's why he understands this so well. It's nice, but it's also sad.
"So either way, they're missing what you do," she interprets. "But if you think what matters is the shape you leave behind, that's probably a good thing to you." Her eyes flick away. "I disagree. I think that, too often, the shape people leave behind is a brand or a scar. The more someone loves them, the more painful it is. It's an incredibly anxious way to live."
She meets Minato's eyes, now unsmiling. "So I'd rather be forgotten once I'm gone. I don't want to be an anchor that weighs others down." She pauses and presses a hand to her cheek again. "This isn't where I meant to go, but here we are all the same."
Maybe in some ways, for one who has experienced loss and almost been lost themselves, it's easier to be a 'thing' rather than a 'person.' Certainly Yanagi lived passively like that for a long time. Because she has, though, it's something she rejects now.
"Thank you for the coffee," she continues, picking up her cane. It takes effort for her to scoot out and stand up, but she manages it all the same. "Please do come by Peacock Silk sometime with whatever goods you've picked up during the Dark Hour. We'll give you a good price for them." She smiles again and waves. "I hope you come to understand who 'you' are without others weighing you down, either."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
A term in psychology...
Minato doesn't really know what those are. He's never really been. These kinds of tragedies are handled inside the family. There's money riding on it, you know?
Still. He's been wondering why, too. Ever since he met Aigis... he keeps thinking about it.
Did he think it was green... because he's been thinking about it in the Dark Hour...?
His gaze comes back into focus, as Yanagi asks what he's not.
"An artifact... an action... an event... an abstraction... a pinpoint existence."
A 'thing'.
"It's an interesting question, I think."
He blinks, once.
"But something like some 'thing' can't ask a girl out for Christmas... so I won't dwell on it too much."
Awww, he's worried about impressing his sweetheart...!
Still... Yanagi calls what's left behind a scar. "I can see it that way," he agrees, amicably. "If you've changed someone, you could call that a scar, too. Knowing about it can be hard. I wonder if your way is kinder...?" He's evaluating it seriously, thoughtfully; it's the kind of thing he can see himself grappling with, though of course he's never had to. "But if living with love is anxious... wanting to disappear sounds fearful, too."
He makes a thoughtful noise, as he regards her.
"Don't worry about it," he decides.
"Finals are coming up soon... all us students are feeling a little weird."
As if he can pretend what he's feeling is normal.
"Peacock Silk... I'll remember," he adds, nodding to her. "Take care, Nagisa-san. When I figure out the shape inside the impression, I'll tell you."
He takes longer with his coffee, though.
... he doesn't quite realise it's gone cold.