2026-08-08: Yoko Meets Peacock Silk And It Goes Great
- Log: 2026-08-08 Yoko Meets Peacock Silk And It Goes Great
- Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Yoko Hirano, Pernelle, Tsumugi Kujaku, Saika Kikuchi
- Where: Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk
- OOC Date: August 08, 2026
- IC Date: December 22, 2012
- Summary: What it says on the tin. All these responsible* adults** are going to be such a good influence on this timid young high schooler.
(|======================= Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk =======================|)
-================================================ Tokyo/Shimokitazawa Ward ====-
Peacock Silk roosts in a restored three-story Taisho building; the front is clad
with shiny copper in verdant green, interrupted by a slim front of brick,
suggesting the building grew together. A little lacuna brings one past Peacock
Silk's windows and into a suddenly-quiet enclosure - surrounded by traditional
burnt-cedar siding, with a flower bed, stone benches, trash and recycling (a
minor miracle in Tokyo) and a vending machine holding truly eccentric drinks,
served cold.
Peacock Silk proper takes up most of the street level of the building. The
entrance is not on the street, but a bit out of the way -- there is a door, now
barred and false, with a tiny placard (too small to be seen from any distance)
stating 'That Way' with a helpful arrow. The shop's entrance has double doors,
guarded by a wrought-iron gate featuring an Art-Nouveau outline of a peacock
with tail in full spread, standing atop a banner reading PEACOCK and SILK to the
left and right.
The store's interior is starkly modern: light wood flooring and white walls,
interrupted with the shop's goods, artisanal tools mounted behind the counter,
and - where a vast space of white makes an irresistible canvas - large pieces of
black-and-white art, rotating periodically. The register and checkout is on your
right as you come in, along with a small display of old-fashioned scales and
assaying tools, doubtless for show. To the entrance's left is a ramped platform
with stout wooden perches, several of different heights. The store's mascot, a
real live peacock, often perches here, peering in judgment on customers and
surveying his domain. (The bird accepts snacks.)
The back of the shop is ruled by a long counter, loosely split into thirds - one
space for glittering jewelry on busts and in glass cases and on twinkling
stands. Another for leather goods, white and black and brown and red; purses and
belts, chokers and bracelets galore. Towards the back, more complete outfits,
with several mannequins bearing signature pieces or unique offerings, often in
dramatic poses. The staff maneuver them now and then; sometimes when a customer
isn't looking.
Towards the far end of the shop, several changing booths have been formed from
interior dividers, holding the basics -- some room to maneuver, somewhere to
hang up clothes, and several mirrors to check yourself. Stepping right outside
of the changing voice is dazzling -- many of the store's modern track lightings
are skewed just so, producing a spotlight effect, like stepping out on stage.
Alone in the world. The perfect visual baptism to celebrate a new individual.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Some time ago--back on November 5, in fact, so roughly a month and a half--one Yoko Hirano revealed to Yanagi Nagisa that, despite being un-Awakened, she can see people's Personas. Yanagi, absolutely taken with this, gave her a business card and invited her to come by Peacock Silk so she can introduce her to everyone.
Yoko hasn't been by yet. However, Yanagi absolutely told her friends, co-workers, and accomplices about the encounter. Who ever thought that someone could have such strong ability to sense Resonance without even having a Persona of their own yet?
She's forgotten about the offer by now. Either Yoko will come or she won't; it's up to her. (Perhaps she got caught up in schoolwork. It is the last day of the second semester today.) Right now, Yanagi is focused on the matter of the Homunculus parasitizing Shinichi Nagisa... her younger brother.
That's why, at present, as the sun is setting, the employees of Peacock Silk are situated upstairs, in the living room with its windows overlooking the street below. (Easy to see if any interesting and/or desired customers come by that way.)
"...and so, I want to take a quick look inside his Atelier--just to get a sense of it and what the Homunculus's progress is so far," Yanagi says, seated on the couch with her walking cane at hand. "We can explore it more fully later, but if it's as aggressive as Kanae described, we need to know how much time we have, and how we can buy ourselves more."
Yanagi doesn't plan on stopping Kanae and the others from finding Shinichi's Thread and Eye. By all means, they should try their best. However, she doesn't plan on waiting for them, either. Really, when has Peacock Silk ever?
"Once we've done that," Yanagi continues, "I intend on approaching the Homunculus--alone--but I want you all nearby when I do. This is what I'm hoping to do..."
She doesn't ask for help. She doesn't feel she needs to. They're all in this together. She thus shares her ideas on how to deal with this particular problem matter-of-factly.
...
...
...
Afterwards, she descends the elevator, around which the stairs spiral. The store is technically closed by now, being early evening in the winter night, but there's a piece in progress she feels like working on right now.
She's loved making jewelry for so long; it's so fortunate for her to be able to do it for a living. It really helps her focus and slough off any fear or anxiety clawing at the edges of her soul.
Of course, since she's down here, that means the downstairs lights are on, and someone outside might try the (locked) side entrance and/or wave to her. Any such person might be surprised to see her in, besides her cane and indoor slippers, a set of comfortable-looking blue-indigo-black pajamas that simultaneously dazzle with all the tiny crystals embedded in it to give the impression of a starry sky. Her jewelry right now is just a set of pearl drop earrings and hair clips of mother-of-pearl on an onyx background.
What? It is after hours--and at the same time, it is a high-end boutique.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
Yoko Hirano was, indeed, busy with school. She can do whatever she likes after hours, more or less, but schoolwork is her 'job' for the forseeable future. So she must devote time and effort to it now, so she can eventually devote them to art full-time.
At least, that's what she tells herself when she'd rather be doing anything but cracking open her workbooks again. Persevere...!
But the important part is, she's here now. Outside, after hours, frowning quietly at the closed and locked door. She thought she had more time? (Flashback to Yoko staring down the platform at the departing train she was late for, holding the can of milk tea that made her late.) ...She guesses she'll have to come back another ti--oh it's Yanagi Nagisa. Is she wearing pajamas?
Yoko reaches a hand into her messenger bag to touch something briefly, and then lifts the same hand to knock gently on the glass. :I
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Pernelle does not forgive, and Pernelle does not forget. That's a lie, on both counts, and forgiveness is neither here nor there. But he has, mercifully, thankfully, not forgotten the standing invitation to the boutique for the young Hirano in question.
This is important for train feather reasons.
Granted, more pressing is the nature of a new homunculus... Sinichi Nagisa. Pernelle, for all his pomp and circumstance and tomfoolery, regarded this news with a more subdued demeanor. And if he should be perching less and roosting by Yanagi more, then perhaps he simply is distasteful of higher altitudes in the winter.
He gives Yanagi a prompt nod. "I shall be as your stalwart shadow in this endeavor," he promises, and listens intently to her thoughts and plans.
...
...
...
Night falls, and Pernelle snorks his mimis on his usual perch, guarding the entrance in body, but not with a sleepy spirit. His long neck is curled against his body, beak tucked into his wing, and donned in a nightcap that dangles with an especially puffy pom.
There's a knock on the glass and Pernelle's beady eyes shoot open.
His head swivels, intense and fiery upon the door, where in the night's dimness and low light, he sees...
His own reflection.
Pernelle hurls himswlf at the door, all molting feathers, thrashing talons, and S C R E A M
"You dare strike in the unwaking hours?! Vile curr! Die in the dishonor you so crave! Have at thee!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
A new Homunculus. A new set of Eyes.
In most cases, it's the extent of Tsumugi Kujaku's full interest in a given sighting. Even things like Kazusa's Awakening or the ongoing mystery of Roger's existence in Taro Nakata's Atelier were, at best, passing fancies -- one of which has been suitably satisfied for them to simply move on to the next idle curiosity.
That this Homunculus' victim is named 'Shinichi Nagisa' makes no nevermind to them. Or it wouldn't.
But the way Yanagi Nagisa goes about deciding to take care of it?
That piques their interest.
...
Tsumugi was quiet as ever during Yanagi's meeting, but also intent. They watch as she talks, palm propping prominent cheekbone as those intense greens watch every little twitch in the motion of Yanagi's lips. Yanagi doesn't ask for help; Tsumugi doesn't offer. They're all in this together. And more importantly...
She has their interest.
-+-
You dare strike in the unwaking hours?!
A mighty SMACK of Peacock Silk's guardian bird-slash-mascot resounds across the boutique! His cries ring out for all who are gifted with the language of freedom and birdiness to hear! Determination to defeat his dubious doppelganger!
"Did you kill it this time?"
The question comes from the top of the stairs as the door to the second story of the boutique cracks open. Dressed in a bright green, silky-sheer duster that tapers towards a yellow-brown at its edges, billowy blue pants and a shimmery gold chest binding, Tsumugi Kujaku descends as they ask that deadpan yet curious question of their partner-in-crime and his ongoing rivalry with the specter-nemesis in the mirror. They look, ostensibly, dressed for bed. Maybe.
Even in comfort, Tsumugi Kujaku does not skimp for style.
Their curious question, however, is already tapering off by the time they're halfway down the stairs. Hand on the rails, they lean forward, head tilting, bright green eyes widening with owlish curiosity. Pale lips purse.
"Ara," they utter, staring dead at -- Pernelle's reflection?! No. Wait--
"Pernelle's nemesis has become an orphan."
Is it even possible for a reflection to gain physical form and become a human? Is Yoko even an orphan? Is any of this accurate? Does Tsumugi believe a word of it?
Who can say; it certainly doesn't stop their observation from being as unreadably flat as ever.
Within that lack of affect, all things are possible...!
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
When she'd heard of Yoko, and her unique talent -
"Huh. I wonder how that happened," Saika had said while chopping up her last harvest of courgettes. (The humble courgette is a popular vegetable - say it with Bandit Keith - IN AMERICA, under the Italian name of zucchini; but it is not popular in Japan, and Saika grew it in a big pot on the roof.)
"You're sure she's not just holding out?"
And now, eating long sticks of the sliced and frozen vegetables, tossed in a rich but not-that-hot assortment of spices, Saika says: "Good plan. So it's just recon, huh?"
The stick is brought up and rested on Saika's lower lip. She smiles: "Reconnaissance in force.~"
BUT NOW
IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT
"what the fuck?"
Saika sets down the novel she was reading - in this case, a translation of an early 20th century English novel which had some pretty good movies - and starts to run down the spiral stairs. Pitter pat go her bare but well trained feet, stopping off only briefly to grab something on the second floor (which is when Tsumugi descends past her) before slipping past them, a step further down.
Wearing a big fluffy white knit sweater that's honestly like two sizes too big for a not-that-objectively-large Saika Kikuchi, but which means she's not wearing any leggings. She had, indeed, had the sweater pulled over her legs as she read, not yet beneath a bedspread.
Also, Saika is holding a broom. "PERNELLE! SHADDAAAAAAAP! I WAS READ--"
Saika sees Yoko. Her face, which had been contorted with the kind of fury that only long co-residence can bring, goes blank for a moment.
Saika points the broom's handle towards Yoko. She raises it back up. This seems to satisfy her that she's not seeing a distorted reflection of herself; Tsumugi's testament gets a glance and a single nod. Saika hups up and vaults over the counter, still carrying the broom like some sort of stout ashigaru, landing in a slight crouch.
After this Saika approaches the window, sweeping the broom around to separate Pernelle from his reflection before it kills him. Then, Saika leans forwards, her forehead plopping against the window. A woman with multiple hair colors, probably none natural, stares out at Yoko with incredulity.
"Hey What's Up," Saika enunciates through the window. "What'cha Want?"
Further elaboration may be derailed by combat with a peacock. Saika will, probably, be able to unlock the door if bonafides are properly transmitted.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi looks up at the sound of the tap-tap-tapping at the side door. When she sees who it is, she brightens. "Oh! It's you!" she declares, waving back excitedly. "Everyone, it's--"
Pernelle promptly attacks his reflection in the glass door. Yanagi gives him an amused look, like, 'Oh, Pernelle,' as if he weren't screaming his beak off as he engages in most ferocious violence with what could be assumed to be Yoko on the other side of the door.
("Very sure," Yanagi had told Saika earlier. Although there are those strange Persona Users who simply don't ping to her Navigator senses, she doesn't think that's what's going on with Yoko.)
Tsumugi weighs in on Pernelle's eternal quest. Yanagi chirps, "He's been vanquished and transformed into Yoko! The one who can see Personas even though she doesn't have one herself yet!" She tup-tups over to pat Pernelle on his comb--thankfully, Saika has already blocked his view with the broom. "You're always so brave, Pernelle! <3"
Saika is also dealing with the matter of Yoko. "Oh, you can let her in," she asides conversationally. "Tsu~mu~gi~" She gestures towards the door at them. "You'll want to meet this one! She's fun. o/`"
Yanagi sounds much cheerier than earlier. It helps in a lot of ways to focus on the right now.
Once Yoko is inside, Yanagi gives her a beaming smile. "You came! It's been so long I completely forgot about it. You're quite late!" She gestures around with her free hand, first to the boutique at large, then to individuals. "Welcome to Peacock Silk! <3 This is Pernelle, this is Saika, and this--is Tsumugi, the owner!"
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
WHACK
Yoko startles; she expected, at worst, to perhaps be told to go home. Not to be a casualty in Pernelle's eternal battle with his nemesis! Why is she being yelled at?! It's not the unwaking hours, it's not even bedtime!*
*Bedtime is subject to variation among demographics. Yoko should know that.
But startling is all she does, not even backing away from the door or making more than a peep; in matters of fight or flight instinct, it seems that maybe Yoko is one of those poor unfortunates wired for 'freeze'.
She can't let on that she's seeing a talking peacock. There shouldn't be even a normal peacock. That's not fair. She was invited and everything. :(
Her fingers tighten on the strap of her bag when Tsumugi and Saika appear. "Um. I'm Yoko Hirano. I'm sorry for being here after closing, but Nagisa-san invited me and I missed my train." She's standing there at the threshold in a navy skirt and colorful tights underneath a warm, baggy sweater and a scarf shaped like a cartoon snake. It has stripes.
Is the peacock real? Many stores have mascots but not usually exotic birds. Double-usually-not talking or screaming ones. Yoko glances at Pernelle occasionally, when she's pretty sure nobody will notice her doing so. SITUATION UNCERTAIN
But thankfully she's invited inside and it's warmer in here. And Yanagi is here. And now Yoko is here as well, with her complete lack of Resonance. "Nice to meet you all. I'm sorry to come by so late. I hope I'm not intruding."
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
Did you kill it this time?
"A work in pugilistic progress, but steady in its sentence! He will be post mortem before the morrow! Hi-YAH!" Pernelle shouts back to Tsumugi without looking back at them, kicking into the glass door.
Such is his fervor that it takes Saika's broom to appropriately sweep Pernelle from the situation, though this turns his aggro to the broom itself with pecking and clawing. He immediately gets his head stuck in the bristles.
Only then does Tsumugi's strange news reach him. An... orphan? Pernelle yanks his head free as his beak falls open, seeing now what Tsumugi sees beyond the reflective surface where his nemesis resides.
"Vanquished...?" he echoes Yanagi, and then puffs his chest with pride. "I have done it! The princess has been pummeled out of her peacockian prison!" He leans eagerly up into Yanagi's head pat.
He is hops up to perch upon Saika's broom handle now, however she might be orienting it. Pernelle is not opposed to poising at a slant. Though, if she should hold it vertically, he is going to slide down and fall off.
"I admit I was unaware of the whole princess predicament. Well, no matter. This is the one who sees while sleeping, yes? How delightful! I wonder if she can detect my dulcet tones."
Pernelle clears his throat and squawks out to Yoko.
"Greeting and salutations, little briar rose!" He bobs his head on his long, elegant neck to look her up and down. "You appear to be unscathed! Wonderful, wonderful. Please, be at ease, for I have dispatched with the villainous scoundrel who would do you ill."
He squints at nothing in particular.
"Until he slithers from the silver veil once more... ... But that is a battle for another time! Come in, come in, welcome!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Ah, if not for Saika's ill-timed intervention, Pernelle's reflection would surely be smote.
Or, their door would be scratched into oblivion and the fracturing of that amorphous solid would have given rise to MULTIPLE avian adversaries.
Who can say, really?
Certainly not Tsumugi, whose attention has already fully shifted from Pernelle's ongoing epic to the new hotness that is an unexpected face this late in the evening. After they alert the others as to the obvious metamorphosis of Pernelle's reflection (???), the raven-haired proprietor of the Peacock pads a path down the rest of those stairs, following in Saika's wake up until the counter, whereupon they simply slump with a majestically lazy grace upon the countertop surface as the door is opened for Yoko to make her way in.
You'll want to meet this one! She's fun.
Green eyes roll towards Yoko the exact moment she comes in, half-lidded and full of some unspoken expectation, as if waiting her to say or do something fun right then and confirm Yanagi's claim == or make her to be a grand deceiver.
What they get --
I'm sorry to come by so late. I hope I'm not intruding.
-- is politeness.
Is it enough? Is that fun--?? Tsumugi shows no outward reaction beyond the shallow cant of their head.
"You hope," they repeat. "Would you stop if I said you were?"
--
"I hope you wouldn't."
It's the only thing they say, for the longest time. As Yanagi makes those introductions, as the others offer greetings in their own unique way, Tsumugi just... watches, unobtrusively yet intent as Yoko absorbs the supernatural, eclectic splendor of this place. Perched on that countertop like a king or queen on their throne, the presence of Tsumugi's Persona is hard to describe; while Jekyll is a monument of mechanical majesty and Hyde, an organic splendor in the beauty of haunting horror, what is there right now is... different.
Two silhouettes, breathtakingly beautiful, coiled around Tsumugi; one more feminine, the other more masculine, yet both almost prototypically formless.
Like they could be nothing and everything at the same time.
Green eyes tilt towards Pernelle as he offers his greetings. It's a brief thing. Their stare is almost entirely on Yoko, otherwise. As she spies looks hoping no one sees, Tsumugi remains silent. No -- it's only until a point where she's not spying looks at Pernelle, a point where she may well think she's in the clear, that Tsumugi suddenly says,
"What do you see?"
Those hooded eyes train on her. Tsumugi leans forward in their perch, their shimmery sheer duster billowing forward with the motion like fine, green mist.
"When you look at him."
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
(Back then, Saika had let out a wordless but thoughtful reply to Yanagi's assertion. She trusts her.)
Once Yoko has been VOUCHED FOR, Saika reaches over, unlatches the door, and pulls it open - at which point she has to bring her hand up to get enough leverage to shift Pernelle, who has *immense* atmospheric drag and inertia when he wants to. Just ask him about the home fries incident! Which did not end with Pernelle's face buried in a broom.
"Woop, hold on - close your eyes, we're not doing cornea scratch again -" Wiggle wiggle wiggle rustle.
"Oh nice! Well, you made the right call," Saika tells Yoko, even as Pernelle vaults up to add his fabulous mass and impeccable volume to the broom -- which stays more or less upright, supporting him in his innate perchiness despite Saika's unassuming size. "Those coffin hotels are complete shit. I mean you're paying almost as much as a hotel room for a humid foam mattress and this tiny shitty TV, right?"
is yoko spending the night
well, that's what Saika's sort of indirectly suggesting, at least
Saika hoists up Pernelle slightly, enabling him to address Yoko I-2-I. She does hoist it to a more perilous angle when she approaches the countertop, which may require Pernelle to choose his poison - the floor, like a peasant? The countertop? The rack Saika's trying not to knock over? (Weirdly enough, all of the display racks have something at their top that just, might, allow a large bird to perch.)
... That is, until Tsumugi speaks. Saika, the loyal stagehand, pivots around and raises the broom up, if Pernelle has remained atop it. This *does* lock him into that eye contact with Yoko.
She doesn't say anything. If anything, she's watching Yoko, closely. Of course, there's a much more fabulous object in the immediate area to focus on - several, in fact, as many as *five* if you count things inclusively - and thus, Saika, a woman clearly roused from the warm embrace of bed, is easier to overlook.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Not at all! If you were, we wouldn't have let you in," Yanagi reassures Yoko, freely and flagrantly speaking for everyone. When Tsumugi implies otherwise, she is not even slightly abashed, nor does she contradict them. Neither does she contradict Saika's insinuation that Yoko's in for a slumber party. Yoko will have a time with that, surely.
She nods sagely along with Pernelle's proclamations. She doesn't know if Yoko will be able to hear him or not, but she really doesn't care about that. "You know he'll always return," she says confidently. "He's a phoenix rising from the ashes beyond the pale. Your quest is never over! That's why you're so wonderful, the way you always stand up and fight, every single time. <3"
Tsumugi's pointed question to Yoko about him, though, gets Yanagi joining in silently with an expectant look, nodding her on to speak her mind. Maybe that will help in the way Saika shoving the peacock into Yoko's face probably does not.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
help it's still talking. why is it doing that. why is this happening to Yoko.
The tangled black of her wavy hair brings to mind the wildness of a briar thicket, certainly! Maybe she's projecting. Maybe she needs to discuss her medication the next time she sees her doctor. Unless the talking bird is a new kind of... Yanagi and Officer Suou had called them Personas. Those things just hanging around.
But she frowns when Tsumugi asks their first question. "I would go home and come back another time. I'm late. This is your home. Home should be a safe place. Safe from everybody, even people who aren't dangerous." All this, after Peacock Silk's owner says they hope she would continue to intrude...
Everybody here has one. Everybody except Yoko. A haunting all their own. Her right hand sliiiiiides down the strap of her bag, towards the mouth.
"I didn't... I was going to catch the train back to Port Island. The last one." Is that an invitation?? She opens her mouth to demur, or something, and then there's a bird all up in her face. Staring at her. Beady birdy eyes to her wide acid-green ones. "...!"
YOKO SURE IS HAVING A TIME, YANAGI. Maybe you could help her with it!! Yoko's giving her a round-eyed stare.
Yoko's hand disappears into the bag. Her mouth firms (into a squiggle). "...sewing pins," she pronounces, shifting a little. "Pretty fabric. It's moving. But you knew that." Is that a teeny hint of sulk?????
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
The day Pernelle sees the fractured veil and faces the assault of a myriad of reflections will be a day indeed. But it is not this day. "Always," Pernelle assures Yanagi of his will to fight with a prideful puff, though it may yet be untested in such a nightmarish scenario. "The greater the enemy, the greater my grit!"
Nor is today the day Pernelle purposefully increases gravity on himself ten fold for the purpose of defying Saika. "Closed!" he chirps obediently as Saika commands. Would he have remembered without her saying so? Absolutely not.
But hopes. And dreams. And Yokos. Pernelle's own train feathers rustles with a quiet delight, his eyes twinkling, as Tsumugi shares their own hopes about the situation in their own languid but precise manner.
As Saika hoists Pernelle around in less level positions, he spreads his wings for balance and reaches a foot out for the rack --
-- only to be spun about, clawed feet clutched tight, and directly eye to eye with Yoko.
"Yes! Hello! Welcome to your personal space!"
Well, at least he knows it's not his bubble that's under fire right now. After all, what need have he for one when he is the one to be gazed upon with someone's full and terrified attention?
But Yoko's eyes begin to stray, and Pernelle shushing in a soothing tone: "Shhh. Do not look at her. Look at me." He begins to draw a perfect, small circle with his beak in the air. None of the rest of him moves.
And then...
Sewing pins. Pernelle stops, and his beak opens again. He is a bird, and just a bird, when he is here. But it is hard, somehow, not to call this a smile. Perhaps it is the way his eyes sparkle with delight.
Anqa, his bright and beautiful golden doll of a Persona. Stitched in rainbow strands. A crest of sewing pins. A disturbing undulation under the fabric's surface. She is more a raptor to Pernelle's pheasant: something that should hunt, were she something alive, and about to lose one of her button eyes on a fraying thread.
"She sees me," Pernelle whispers in reverence.
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
Home should be a safe place.
"I don't have much use for safety. Safety means stagnation."
The words come, simple and distant but ever to-the-point, in answer to Yoko's insistence. Tsumugi Kujaku raises a pale hand, palm up in presentation of the Peacock (Silk. not the literal one.).
"This place exists for people to pursue their interests, no matter what. You should do that instead of worrying about something that has no worth to me." She is interested, isn't she? After all...
"You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to pursue that interest. Right?"
And just like that, Tsumugi moves on to the next thing that interests them: what Yoko sees when she looks at Pernelle. Yanagi told them, a month and a half ago: a girl who sees Personas but has none of her own. So what she says as she sullenly stares at Pernelle, helpfully hoisted by Saika running a valiant sidegig as a peacock wrangler and presenter, isn't necessarily surprising and unexpected. Maybe they just want confirmation on the truth.
Yet when she answers, and claims they already knew? Tsumugi finally glances aside.
"Mm," Peacock Silk's co-founder exhales. "I only know how I see it."
Shoulder lift and roll in a lazy motion. Green eyes drift back towards Yoko and Pernelle. As the peacock whispers in his reverent awe... a small smile curves up the corners of Tsumugi Kujaku's lips. She sees him.
"She does," they confirm. They look to Saika, and then to Yanagi. And then, quite calmly and equally abruptly, they note, not quite looking at Yoko:
"It's okay to talk to him, you know."
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
"That's really neighborly of you," Saika opines when Yoko answers Tsumugi. Her tone is positive... ish? Complimenting. But is she complimenting with shade? A perilous question.
A comment, too, one that may fade into the distance when a vicious killer and immortally impeccable talent is turning his beak around to lull one into a false and soothing state of mind...
And yet: She sees him. Saika brightens.
... and behind Saika, perhaps something that just happened to be a little hard to see, first through the window and its shimmering night-time liminality. And, of course, she had a fabulous descendant of the Cretaceous era on a long pole in front of her.
But as Saika does shift the elegant bird towards the counter -- perhaps trusting in either Pernelle's good sense or a step-up reflex to get him off the stick and off her biceps -- it's suddenly and sharply clear.
It's a familiar figure. Maybe normally in greenish and wearing a suit suitable to be buried in; now, an outdated chinpira-grade yellow suit coat, worn open over a bodyglove in black with straps. A steel collar with spikes as long as a hand. Gray skin. A square forehead. Bolts in the side of the head. A mouth that seems to grin, with gray and terrible teeth.
"If you don't ever have those periods of safety, though," Saika tells Tsumugi, "it's becoming it's own kind of stagnant, isn't it? It's like the quiet parts in songs. If the whole album was bangers, you'd get exhausted."
"And yeah, go ahead," Saika concludes, as she steps over to lean the broom against the counter. "You hungry?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi is helping Yoko: by encouraging her to be as weird as she truly is at heart, rather than shoving herself into a box to conform to society's expectations lest she be judged and reviled! You're welcome, Yoko.
Indeed, when Yoko describes Anqa, and Pernelle all but sparkles over it, Yanagi looks at the others with a proud little smile and a nod like, 'See? I told you so!'
Just because she's a bit withdrawn on the surface doesn't mean anything. Wasn't Yanagi herself similar at first?
"Safety isn't so bad every once in a while. You need to have breaks sometimes or you'll wear yourself out," she points out to Tsumugi. (Indeed, Yanagi needs breaks more often than most, not that that's the intent of her remark.) Saika weighs in more eloquently; Yanagi nods her agreement. Unlike Saika, though, she then looks back at Yoko and adds, "They're right, though. This is a place to be free! Celebrate yourself!"
Also unlike Saika, she doesn't implicitly offer any food. This is a good thing.
Yoko points out that they also know what she sees. Yanagi smiles brightly. "And aren't you glad you're not the only one?" She taps a finger to her chin in thought, though. "Oh, maybe you aren't glad. Is that what's the matter?"
Still, Tsumugi encourages Yoko to talk to Pernelle. "Yes! He's very friendly, and such a gentleman! You have nothing to fear!" This, despite his ferocity earlier??? Well, yes. That's reserved for his most hated and repugnant rival (still his reflection).
Either way, once they all start heading back towards the stairs+elevator, she'll follow along, walking cane supporting her the whole way. After hearing about Shinichi, she went for a regenerative massage at Tominaga Chiropractic, so she's livelier about it today.
<Pose Tracker> Yoko Hirano has posed.
She sees him. She sees and Sees and sees. "I didn't know if you were real. Until they started talking to you," she confesses to him, once Pernelle and Tsumugi have been appropriately satisfied by her answer. "There's a lot that isn't really there, not the same way that Personas aren't there." The world is full of a million mysteries and it's terrifying and wonderful.
Saika has the right of it!! Yoko nods, eyes fixed intently. "Yeah. Because you have to be able to feel both. Or it's neon all the time and no softer colors to rest your eyes on. And you get tired, and you stop seeing anything at all and then you miss it." It's good though, to be understood. This must be a little like what Pernelle feels? Being seen.
Maybe it's a good thing that Yoko doesn't seem to suspect any shadiness on Saika's part? Whether or not it's even there! She is too overwhelmed with nerves and resisting them to process social intricacies. She's trying SO HARD though and she is DOING IT.
Her toes curl inside of her loafers. "I... I'm not upset. About that. Now that I know other people can see them too because they're real. But before I was... not unhappy." There's a sense of frustration as she searches for the correct words. Why are words always so hard?? "But it was... lonely? Maybe." Hitoribocchi.
Her hand stays dug into her bag as they tromp up the stairs and elevator. Nagisa may remember what she keeps in there! "I'm not really hungry. But I could snack," Yoko admits. That can of hot tea seems a long time ago now.
<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.
"Tsumugi also sees me," Pernelle notes with a sagacious nod. "They were the first, in fact! To gaze upon my fabulous form and know it is, too, fashionable!"
Is that how it works? Pernelle, you're just saying words.
"Yes, by all means! Talk with him! Glorious hims!" Pernelle leans in toward Yoko conspiratorially as he whispers: "Hims is me."
As Saika displaces him to the counter, Pernelle steps off of it with unerring grace and a delicate clickyclack of his claws touching the surface. Saika asks if Yoko is hungry. It is Pernelle that answers, bobbing up and down to try and get her attention. "I am!"
Yoko confesses she did not know if Pernelle was real, and Pernelle nods to her in understanding. "Yes, yes, I understand. To have laid eyes upon such a spectacular specimen in a world filled with what is and what is not... One can hardly be blamed for a spell of disbelief!"
Pernelle does not comment as Tsumugi exposes their thoughts on safety and stagnation, nor on desire and its pursuit. What more is there for him to say? For a bird that loves to talk and act like the boutique is named for him and not for them, his silence carries the weight of agreement as the other two provide counterpoints.
It is only when Yoko makes mention that Pernelle sees fit to say anything over it. Unfortunately, what he offers of his insight is a soft gasp: "Neon all the time sounds positively prodigious!"
Is he listening?! In his own way, surely.
"What you possess, little briar rose," Pernelle goes on, following along himself. "Is a window into the waking world. Such a curious trait in one who sleepwalks! Yanagi was right about you."
Then Yoko says the magic word, and Pernelle becomes incorrigible as he bobs with greater enthusiasm while chanting:
"Snacks! Snacks! Snacks! Snacks!"
<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.
No safety is just as stagnant as only safety?
Tsumugi, detached as ever, lifts a hand to tap an index finger against their chin.
"Hm."
They look unconvinced. Or bored. Maybe they truly only desire excitement until an exhausted end. Perhaps they, like Pernelle, crave but only the neon. But Yanagi and Saika make their pitch.
You need to have breaks sometimes or you'll wear yourself out.
It's like the quiet parts in songs.
In the background of Yoko and Pernelle's fated heart-to-heart, Tsumugi contemplates, palms on countertop and shoulders raised. They look to Saika. To Yanagi.
"Like the METAL parts of BABYMETAL?"
--
--
QUICKLY: legitimate belief, or calculated effort to spark (ongoing?!) debate with Saika over which part of BABYMETAL songs qualifies as 'CERTIFIED BANGER'??
Whatever the case, they're soon slipping off the counter in perfect sync with Pernelle, bare feet THMPing hard floor as claws click-clack in time.
"You're different," they say simply about Yoko as she tries to work through her feelings on the matter of those unique things she sees. Things that may be real, or may not be. "Different in a way most don't want to understand." Not 'don't' understand. 'Don't want' to.
Before they all abscond to the upper levels, Tsumugi crouches, index finger extending to coax the top of Pernelle's head with a most tiny, most praiseworthy pet.
"But that's what makes you much more unique. Much more worth knowing."
With that, Tsumugi fluidly stretches back up into a stand before gracefully gliding upstairs via the stairway, rather than the elevator; they don't stop, or even beckon for the others to follow, letting them all choose their preferred mode of transport.
It's only when they all reach the top, and those elevator doors hiss open, that the green-eyed store owner suddenly remarks, picking up on Pernelle's eloquent observation:
"Right now you're window shopping. Do you want to step inside?"
Into the waking world.
<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.
("Free like speech, though," Saika says in very tiny letters underneath the part where Yanagi expressed herself on the matter of being Free! It isn't a charity.)
"Yeah, exactly," Saika concurs with Yoko - her color theory washes over her, but she works with a relatively finite palette of colors, even if the spread of *textures* is far greater. She twirls the broom around and parks it in a space behind the counter, where it can be found easily, later.
Does she anticipate a downstairs mess??
Or is that just the broom with which to whack Pernelle??
"Though," Saika says as they begin to drift, turning to sidle past others - perhaps past Tsumugi most closely - "it is pretty late. Maybe you don't want to eat if you're not really -- ahhh," Saika demurs, waving a hand as Pernelle chants Snacks. "I'm overruled~ OK, OK. It's gonna be bread and chutney though, okay? So don't eat the red one unless you're used to spice. This is REAL spice, not messing around!"
AND SO -
Up a level and it's a common dining room. There is even (slightly ragged) tatami in part of the floor, where there is a table. It's a kotatsu at the moment, with a quilted outside that seems to have been put together from extras and odds-and-ends from bolts of cloth -- underneath, where it's on your legs, it's quilted fabric of the usual kind, sure. On the outside, it's glittering. There is lace, and pale green, and sharp streaks of glittering purple nylon like the scales of an alien fish.
There is a TV, but it's turned off, unless someone wants to turn it back on. There's also a DVD player, and a small shelf with a number of miscellaneous titles. The one resting on top seems to be LA MARCHE DE L'EMPERUEUR - French language track, Japanese subtitles.
Saika breezes past and directly into the kitchen. A pan clatters, and there are some miscellaneous smaller clatters before something goes whir-whir-whirrr and from one of those desktop CD players echoes out a song of lyrical promise and mystery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IzR_ClTE8Y
What the hell is Saika cooking, anyway? The smell soon enough reveals itself: she is at the very least pan-warming, and potentially fully pan-*cooking*, bread -- potentially from scratch. There is something with a silicone paint brush happening when
"HEAD O BANG! HEAD O BANG! HEAD O BANG! HEAD O BANG! HEAD O BANG!"
Saika sings along.
PRESENTLY, IF POSSIBLY AFTER ALL THE CONVERSATION:
HOME COOKED ROTI BREAD
shredded with love
accompanied by homemade chutnies
"This one's honey and mandarin jam," Saika points them out, "and this one's actually sort of a miso thing even if it looks like soy sauce... this one's mild chili, and THIS one takes courage. To Pernelle, though," Saika says, picking up a shred of bread and spooning on some of the chili, "it ain't shit."
Saika holds it out to Pernelle to take.
It's... red, in that chili-oil greasy way that promises it is veritably tongue-scalding in heat. But the thing about chili peppers is that they evolved that way, not for the sake of masochistic apes, but for the sake of birds.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
You're doing it, Yoko!! Congratulations!!! (*clap clap clap*)
Similarly, when Yoko expresses her own opinion on the need for safety, Yanagi looks at her in approval for speaking her mind. Her assertion that some things still aren't real get her a thoughtful look. "Like what?" she wonders.
Like the METAL in BABYMETAL? So Tsumugi wonders.
Yanagi tilts her head, eyebrows furrowing.
"Is it?? I'd think it's more like the BABY parts of BABYMETAL."
(She loves music, but mostly just listens to classical, ballet, and opera music. What she's heard of BABYMETAL is largely what Saika has played and sung along to in the boutique...)
Yoko explains she wasn't and isn't unhappy, but she was lonely. Yanagi's dark grey eyes are sympathetic. "I see... Even when others are kind, it's isolating to be the only one you know experiencing what you do."
She does remember what Yoko keeps in her bag! She doesn't see a need to point it out, though. Instead, she giggles at Pernelle, hand on her chin. "That's so you," she says fondly of his gasping over All Neon, All The Time. When he chants, she chants along with him, "Snacks! Snacks! Snacks! Snacks!" And when Saika inevitably relents: "Yaaayyy!"
(Yanagi and Pernelle are delightfully horrible influences on each other.)
As they all head upstairs, Yanagi leaves talk of the waking world to Tsumugi and Pernelle. Tsumugi is the most eloquent, and Pernelle--she knows well how supportive he is.
She'll happily nosh on the courage-requiring chili roti. That doesn't mean she won't suffer afterwards, just that she has courage and also no respect for her own pain. The heat might not be shit to Pernelle, who can't even taste it, but what's a little firebreathing when your body is failing on you?
She might pass out afterwards, though. She'll definitely need a tall glass of milk.