2026-07-07: Unforeseen Consequences

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(|====================== Electric Town - Gigolo Arcade =======================|)
-========================================================= Tokyo/Akihabara ====-
The Gigolo Arcade chain has a few locations across Tokyo, but the most popular  
one is arguably the location at Akihabara, which is open all day and night.     
After all, it sports not just booths for the hit shooting game Gun About, like  
other locations, but it has the biggest and most robust selection of prizes in  
its many UFO catcher games.                                                     
                                                                                
This includes several premium booths with deluxe boxed plushies of various      
mascots. Supposedly, days ending in 7 (the 7th, the 17th, and the 27th) are     
extra lucky and will boost your chances of taking them home.                    
                                                                                
The various games at the arcade take varying levels of money to play, so        
change-making machines allow one to select exactly what coinage to get back.    
Posters of cute mascots and anime girls line the walls over the machines.       

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    Gigolo Arcade! It doesn't need any further introduction. Especially not the part of the chain that's at Akihabara. It's there, it's hopping, it's happening! There's a weird pig-like mascot here during most of the day. Nobody's been able to successfully ask and follow through on the questions long enough as to their exact origins. Maybe they never will. Humanity has a way with experiencing the truly weird, like that.
 
     Whatever the case, the wearer of that costume is officially treated as an employee there, and by whatever mechanisms or circumstances are in play today, is done with work earlier than usual. This only means one thing, to a young man(?) who seems to have a single-minded interest in all of his very existence: to spend some of that money playing arcade games without much care in the world.
 
     Roger is easy to spot for anyone who knows him. Sure, the Persona-users have Resonance to make it almost trivial, but he's still visually distinct: a heavy-set guy with odd but not inhuman proportions, distinctly uncanny despite his earnest and friendly nature. An odd guest to a plane of existence he by all rights should not be in at all... but a polite one, just making the best of the strange, dangerous, and paradoxical game that is 'being human.'
 
     Is he good at that? Some aspects more than others...
 
     Right now he's outside in the brisk, cold December daytime air finishing some manner of snack that will be finished before anyone talks to him, so saying what it is is kind of a moot point 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa isn't sure what to make of Roger. Even leaving aside the origin of 'being a Shadow from an Atelier' (which you definitely shouldn't but Kazusa is dealing with enough as it is that she is, frankly, willing to just through her hands up at that detail and roll with it until such time as she feels more capable of tackling it; current projections are 'never'), his fixation with 'playing games' is baffling to her, as soeone who has had to work so hard just to keep up appearances or enjoy her own intersts clandestinely. But he did help rescue her, and he did bring that plushie from her Atelier which... is weirdly conforting to have on her desk.

Whether that be because it was a rare, nice, unguarded gesture or because it carries some of the feeling of her Atelier or the Sanguin helpers within, she couldn't say.

Regardless of all that, though, he's the closest thing she has to an expert on Ateliers, and she's got wind of another one that needs some helping with.

And she needs something to distract her from some thoughts that have been consuming her as of late.

So she approaches him with a serious expression, still in her Shujin uniform. "Roger-san. There you are. I need to talk to you. Do you have a moment?"

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    'Roger-san. There you are. I need to talk to you. Do you have a moment?'
 
     "Oh! Motojima-chan!" Roger turns about-face, guilelessly smiling and cheerful. "I do! I just got off work. It's nice to see you here! I was about to go back inside the arcade and play."
 
     Pretty much everything is along the lens of that. This much is inescapable. Every other complexity that grasping a human-like psyche affixes to oneself seems to mostly be in service of continuing that really basic 'want' of his.
 
     It takes him a moment to register her more serious expression, tilting his head. "Um... are you all right? Usually people coming here look happy..." 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa pauses as she registers Roger's words, blinking. "You just got off-- You have a job? What do you do?" 'Go back in and play.' There it is. Kazusa sighs.

Of course, even beyond 'there is another Homunculus or two, she's dealing with... a lot of other things she's not sure how to grasp.

"No, I'm not alright, but--" Kazusa pinches the bridge of her nose. "Just--" She glances around. "Let's find someplace a little more quiet to talk?" 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    "I'm a mascot for the arcade!" Roger answers proudly, for all the menial grace and pay such a thing gets. He's happy!
 
     ...But she's sighing.
 
 5tHe remains perplexed.
 
     "Someplace a little more quiet? Okay! We can do that. Where to?" 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa blinks and stares at Roger, then looks at the arcade, and then gives Roger a long, hard look. There's something cold and dangerous in her tone. "... what kind of mascot?" she demands.

"Here, just--over here, out of prying eyes," she says, moving to a place partially blocked from view, and out of the way of foot traffic. "It's Atelier business," she says quietly as she moves. 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    "What kind?" He echoes the question. "I just wear the suit of how I looked as a Sanguin Humor!" He smiles. It was a very, very strange thing - when he came out of Taro Nakata's Atelier, the human world seemed to parse his existence as a guy in a mascot suit. Getting out of that booth was one thing.
 
     Dealing with the complaints of the net cafe operator about how the hell he got in, well. That was a misadventure! It's in the past now.
 
     On with the present, the increasingly cold and dangerous tone seems to start piercing him, as he pushes his fingers together. Something really must be wrong, but he's not sure why.
 
     'It's Atelier business.'
 
     Roger's eyes widen. And then, a more aggressive, tense face. "Did you find another Homunculus?" 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa turns and stares at Roger. "And what does that form look like?" she insists. "Because if it was a giant cartoon pig then I've got a bone to pick with you," she says in a quiet, seething voice.

She's trying to reserve judgement until she gets confirmation. She's not doing a great job of it.

"Well-- I haven't found them personally, but-- I heard about them, from two Persona Users." 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    'Because if it was a giant cartoon pig then I've got a bone to pick with you.'
 
     "...Um." Roger flinches. This may be confirmation. It is confirmation. Confirmation. CONFIRMATION NATION. Conferred confirmation. Firm confirmation. Pro-confirmation. Conforming to confirmation. A seen confirmation.
 
     (...that's enough of that)
 
     It is confirmation so strong that it may overpower the immediate nature of this conversation. 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa watches that reaction, and it is, indeed, all the confirmation she needs. She lets out a strangled "You--" before pressing the heel of her palm firmly against her forehead to ward off the ensuing headache.

And to mqaybe keep the screed in a moment longer, too.

But only a moment.

"You IDIOT!" The hand drops, and Kazusa stalks forward. "You had to go and taunt her, didn't you? Give her that little speech, provoke her!? Do you realize what you almost DID!?" Her dark purple eyes are wide and furious, and although she's at least making a little bit of effort not to be heard out in the main flow of traffic... she's not holding much back from Roger. 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    'YOU IDIOT!'
 
     "Yipes!!" Roger squeals, and starts walking backward as the intensity of Kazusa's anger and frustration as she hammers long-held frustration like there is a stubborn nail right in front of her that just won't go into the board, because that nail is somehow jumping out of where it's set and is trying to flee for their freedom!
 
     ...No, not quite that intensely, but it's not that far a leap.
 
     There's something cartoonish - definitely cartoonish - in the way Roger moves and reacts. Emotions are much more clearly partitioned in presence and expression in younger media, aren't they, for an audience coming to grip with what feelings are and what they mean. Something that feels distinctly out of place for someone whose appearance seems to blur the line of 'high school student' or 'young adult' without it being exactly clear where along life this guy is.
 
     For someone who hasn't actually been a human-analogous being for even a year.
 
     "Aie!" Being able to step back no further, he goes down to his knees and bows forward, head down.
 
     "Sorry, sorry!"
 
     ...
 
     He looks up, much more even in tone.
 
     "Wait, what did I almost do, Motojima-chan?" 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Kazusa is trying to be a better person. She is very angry now, and she doesn't have a lot of healthy outlets for her anger besides just lashing out.

She will probably feel very ashamed of this later, but in the moment, she doesn't have that great a grip on herself. Especially not as it pertains to one of her closest friends.

Roger is pressed until he can go no fruther, and then... he falls to his knees, apologizing. Kazusa looks down at him, eyes locked in that angry glare. "You taked to that Homunculus," Kazusa cotinues, her voice low and charged. "You tipped her off with all of that talk about-- about bringing the real me back to play! Do you know who had my Threads? Do you!?" 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    Roger visibly shakes with a cold sweat as Kazusa gives that glare when he looks up, with further clarity.
 
     That whole thing with the Homunculus.
 
     "Um... that was your friends, wasn't it?" He asks, jogging the wheels of memory about the lead-in to gaining access to Kazusa's Atelier, to their secret hobby warehouse and all of that. 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

"That was Waka-chan!" Kazusa snaps. "She's been my bet friend since grade chool! After you gave your bone-headed speech that Homunculus went and-- she went and-- and--"

The memory of it comes flooding back and Kazusa shivers. That wasn't you, she reminds herself. You didn't do it. You couldn't control it.

But that thing had been wearing her face. She'd seen how it had affected Wakana. It was hard not to feel responsible, somehow, despite all rational arguments to the contrary.

And it wasn't like she hadn't done plenty of harm of her own, after all. What was a little bit more?

Kazusa turned and hugged herself, trying to steady herself. "She threatened Waka-chan," Kazusa whispers. "She figured out-- That you had the Threads. She knew who gave them up-- she went to check-- I couldn't--" 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    There is further context given about the depth of the transgressions that transpired. The degree of hurt and loss of all that happened in the wake of the horrid Homunculus' days piloting the life of Kazusa Motojima.
 
     Roger keeps his head bowed expecting further steps forward, perhaps something more drastic. When it doesn't happen - and instead she hugs herself to keep a grip on herself, Roger looks up momentarily to see if the coast is... not opaque, one supposes.
 
     "...I never imagined a Homunculus would go that far," he sniffs. (Snorts, a bit more accurately.) It is known that they're fully awake and aware during the Dark Hour and that it is not safe to try to take Threads from their apparent coffins, but.
 
     "Um... that was my first time meeting a Homunculus in your world," he says that 'your world' plainly like it's the most mundane thought ever, because from his perspective it is! He rights up some, but remains kneeling, pushing his fingers together. "I never would've thought they'd go so far to do something like that..."
 
     He looks up. "Homunculi want to be 'you' so much... I couldn't have known from this world how far they'd be willing to go with that..."
 
     Now he's hugging himself.
 
     "Eee... that scares me too..." 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Roger didn't know the Homunculus would go that far. "Yeah, well... she did. And now Waka-chan won't talk to me-- and she knows that wasn't me, but I've already been such a terrible friend to her it was more than she could handle, and I don't know if I can ever just--fix things between us or-- or-- or just..." Kazusa trailed off for a moment, her expression haunted. Her voice i almost a whisper as she finally finishes the thought. "... she doesn't deserve to suffer because of me."

She'd take on all that suffering if she could. She deserves it.

"Well, now you know," Kazusa says, still not looking at Roger. She seems calmer now, even if that only means 'she's not shouting angrily.' She's still plenty upset, though. "So... new ground rule. Don't provoke a Homunculus. You don't know if it might hurt somebody because of it. Especially if they're connected to the Threads or Eye or whatever."

She's silent for a long moment, her expression haunted as she tries to process everything. "... Yeah, well. She was definitely 'me', alright. Because I've been a terrible friend to her, too."

She wipes something wet away from the corner of her eye.

Roger is cared, too. "Good. Now you know how I feel. How Wakana-chan felt."

She lets out a long, slow, tense sigh. "... look. You didn't know it would happen, just... be more careful next time, okay?" 

<Pose Tracker> Roger has posed.

    Roger is mercifully quiet through all of what Kazusa has to say of that frightful experience. Of one that she did not go through unscathed, nor without the loss of things precious to her. It was more than stolen time - stolen trust, stolen friendships, and far more irreplaceable things.
 
     "...okay... I'll remember that," he says, "another rule to learn..."
 
     Another rule of a game to learn, such as it is.
 
     "Um... Motojima-chan," he presses his fingers again, "I'm happy you're able to do the things you want to again, even after all of that..." There's some pauses here, as though his psyche has to roll the proverbial marble around until it hits whatever that passes for a human-like psyche that lets him find coherent expression of thoughts that manage to surface independent of the singular thing he seems to exist to do when left to his own devices.
 
     "...Let's keep stopping Homunculi from taking over Ateliers together!" 

<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.

Roger will remember that. "Good," Kazusa says, without quite looking at him.

Kazusa has, indeed, lost a lot. And gained, in some strange, and unpredicted ways. But so far, though the Homunculus is gone, the impact it had on her life still lingers.

Mabe, in that way, it still gets to 'live', after a fashion.

All the same, she's glad Roger didn't invoke 'play' again. But to do what she wants to, and to keep stopping Homunculi together. "... yeah. We'll... keep trying to keep those things from messing up anybody else's life too badly."

Kazusa still hasn't quite managed to look at Roger again. She pinches the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes. "... Dammit. Why have I been so angry lately?" she mutters to herself. "You need to get a grip. You're supposed to be better than this."

Finally she does manage to turn to look at Roger after taking a long, deep breath. "... look. I still need to talk to you but I can't-- I need to-- I need to go be alone for a bit. I'll catch you later, okay?"

And with that she turns and heads out into the stream of traffic, trying to keep her head down as she makes her way for the studio.

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