2026-08-14: Nothing Beside Remains

• Log: 2026-08-14 Nothing Beside Remains
• Cast: Yanagi Nagisa, Pernelle, Saika Kikuchi, Eriko Kirishima, Tsumugi Kujaku, Tamaki Uchida, Masao Inaba
• Where: Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk
• OOC Date: August 15, 2026
• IC Date: December 25, 2012
• Summary: During the Dark Hour of Christmas, Eriko, Tamaki and Masao come to Peacock Silk to explain what exactly is up with Takahisa Kandori.

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(|======================= 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.

    It's the most~ wonderful~ time~ of the year~
    
    ...Wait, haven't we opened up like this before? Damn you, overplayed Christmas carols...!
    
    Alas, the Christmas spirit reaches even eclectic boutique Peacock Silk on this, the day that, per Jesus H. Christ, Santa Claus invented reindeer-powered flight. It's not that decorated for it, but there are lights strung up haphazardly outside along with various peacock feathers and strings of glitter with a certain chaotic beauty. (No prizes for guessing who's responsible. (it was Tsumugi (was it?? (only they know)))) Faceless mannequins are posed inside and outside the storefront to vogue in drapes of red and green and white, in between being posed to stare and sometimes point unnervingly out into the passing crowds. They seem almost like they might move the instant you take your eyes off them...
    
    Inside, the employees of Peacock Silk are dressed with similar holiday cheer. Yanagi, for her part, has her long, wavy hair up in golden mistletoe hair clips with leaves carved from jade and garnets set as the berries. She wears a jingle bell choker and an ermine-trimmed red cloak over a shimmering snowflake-patterned babydoll dress with partially detached sleeves. Jingle bells adorn her anklets and bracelets too, so every movement is a song.
    
    And to add to the festivity, the light is green and the dusting of snow is red. Because it's the Dark Hour.
    
    "They should be here any moment now," Yanagi says cheerily, seated at her workstation with a hot mug of spiced brandy in hand. It really warms up her throat and her hands, which is nice in this chilly weather. "Maki can't make it," unless that changed since last she asked, "but Eriko and the others should be able to tell us all about that Kandori person all the same." She smiles encouragingly at Pernelle. "I'm sure they'll be able to help us understand much better what happened!"
    
    The two of them already let Tsumugi and Saika in on those events, but there's only so much they could explain, having not been a part of the Mikage-cho Incident. Ironically, Yanagi's brother could tell them a thing or two about it, but that's neither here nor there.

<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.

Even Pernelle, the adorable mascot of the Peacock Silk Boutique, is dressed in festival cheer. It is upon his glorious head that he wears a little Santa hat with little reindeer antlers, and his indigo vest exchanged for a brown, fuzzy one with creamy fluff instead of his cravat. This is, naturally, accompanied by a harness of sleighb ells.

They jingle and they jangle with every hop, which Pernelle performs persistently, for he is a creature all too easily amused by new stimulation and noisy novelty.

Were it not the Dark Hour, feasibly there would be those nearby who could not hear his voice. Instead, they would hear cooing and trilling. Alas, as it is, to those who hear true...

"Ehehehehehehe." ...he's giggling.

He had a glowing, peacock-green bulb on his nose, but it shorted out the moment the Dark Hour hit and he promptly swallowed it.

He beams up at Yanagi, all the more articulated with his limbs during the Dark Hour and using them to gesture enthusiastically. "Most auspicious! And cleverly clandestine, if I do say so myself. I know we suggested tea initially, but I do think spices and cider suit our sensibilities."

Pernelle's train feathers fluff and rustle without fully displaying.

"Oh! The cookies! I must fetch them!"

He hurries off, jingling all the way with no concern about being caught underfoot by anyone else. Worryingly, he is not going toward the kitchen, which means he is likely rummaging through one of his many hidden stashes.

<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.

 
Saika Kikuchi is wearing seasonal attire. This consists of:

* A red fleece jacket and slacks with a white interior lining, which peeks out around the edges, just like Santa or something!
* A pair of warm fluffy boots which are actually not made by Saika but do fit great and are real comfy (they are a kind of indifferent brown suede but they do also have a fleecy interior)
* A pair of reindeer antlers with tiny jingly bells
* A black leather shibari-style harness containing a number of fat silver jingly bells including one at the collar, which is, at least, worn *on top of* the red fleece jacket and pants. you know, like Santa wears.

"It sounds completely insane," Saika says. "I wish I'd been there to beat the shit out of that guy with the both of you!" Saika is perhaps not certain if shit-beating was involved, but 'beat the shit out of it' is always on Saika's Quick Response Bar.

Saika is having the most Christmassy of beverages: an Asahi Dry, which she popped right at the shift of the Dark Hour, possibly as her way of daring God or whoever to come kick her ass. "Oh shit! Absolutely!" Saika has also been leaning her ass against the counter with one leg brought up rakishly. When Pernelle suffers COOKIE PANIC, she turns her head to watch him scramble, but does not move to help.

Perhaps that's how she rolls.

Perhaps that's how *they* roll.

Perhaps she wants to see how Pernelle manages it.

Perhaps this is revenge for the tandoori incident.

<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.

    Mikage-cho, 11:48PM, Dec 24, 2012.

    Eriko Kirishima looks satisfied at last with the arrangement of presents underneath the family tree, the packages she had managed to sneak in her luggage kept nice and hidden until now, aside from the ones she had more obviously brought with her. She stands up, still dressed in her festive outfit- a red Santa dress, white fur lining the skirt, sleeves, and collar, green leggings, red shoes, and of course, the red hat with the bobble on it. Two gifts stand out among the rest, with special labels- one labeled 'To Hanako, from Jack Frost' and the other 'To Meiko, from Pyro Jack'.

    "You know, Eriko, your sisters stopped believing in Santa a year or two ago," Seiichiro Kirishima informs his daughter. "You don't have to keep this sort of thing up."

    "I know, Dad, but I can keep a little wonder in Christmas for them, can't I? I mean, you and Mom let me keep up the belief until I was twelve, even though we all knew he wasn't real." Though she should really see if that's still the case...

    "Fair enough, fair enough. I don't know how Meiko will react, though." He says, taking a drag from his last cigarette of the night. "She's... not all that keen on that stuff, these days."

    Eriko sighs a little herself, waving away the cigarette smoke. She's not all that keen on her father's habit, but, well... International pilot is a stressful job. She can't judge him for coping as he will. "Well, then she has a story about her annoying older sister to tell, then." Still, with that done, Eriko stands up and looks out at the clock. "...Mmm, I'm going to get a little air before I go to bed, I think. It's been a while since I've gotten to look out at Mikage-cho at night."

    Seiichiro nods. "Alright, but don't stay out there too long. Even with a coat and scarf, your mother will tear into you if you come down with a cold on Christmas Morning."

    Eriko smiles. "I wouldn't dream of it." She walks over to give her father a kiss on the cheek, before getting her warm winter coat and red scarf from the coat stand. "If you go to bed before I come back, good night, Dad."

    Peacock Silk, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, The Dark Hour

    Mementos is a wonder for getting places on time- but a little tricky to access from Mikage-cho. Tricky, but not impossible. After all, what's one more winding, labyrinthine maze for that train station, it's had one before.

    From there, it's a relatively quick trip through the collective unconscious to Tokyo, skipping past Exit 8, and coming up through Shimokitazawa station. She messaged Mark and Tamaki to head straight for Peacock Silk, as she might be a little late.

    Whatever the situation, Eriko makes the entrance she wants to make.

    "Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!" She calls, in perfect English, with a big wave and even a sack over her shoulder. (Look. She may have had a quick word with a Sandman on the way in. A word accentuated with an assault rifle.) "Hello, everyone!"

    Look. It's Christmas. Christmas spirit is important. And Peacock Silk seems all dolled up for the holidays too!

<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.

It's CHRISTMAS!

-- Technically!

And what better reason is there to indulge in commercial consumer festivity than this, truly?

The decor of Peacock Silk, of course, is set to inspire exactly that sentiment. The lights! The mannequins, pointing at you, all but screaming in hollow lifeless voices 'SHOP! NOW!'

The haunted atmosphere of it all that practically screams like a Tim Burtonian nightmare prior to the season...!

What, truly, is more Christmas than this?

The person who may or may not or may not not be responsible for said decor choices certainly can't think of anything else. It might be because they don't particularly care to, of course, which is a thing all on its own. Perched on the countertop, back slumped against Saika's shoulder, Tsumugi is - like her - dressed traditionally for the occasion: in specific, they seem to have taken to dressing as a traditionally stereotypical Christmas Elf, like the kind you see in the old, American movies.

Yes, it has it all: the pointy green pixie hat, ending in a white poof ball!

The green tunic, cinched at the waist by a thick black belt with an heavy gold buckle!

The smoky eyeliner, making bright green eyes stand out like counterpoints to the festive Dark Hour hues!

The AGGRESSIVELY festive lipstick art, colored in quadrants of alternating green and red, with little hearts decorating the top and a very Celtic-looking deer decorating the bottom (https:'i.etsystatic.com6403302rilc77bf52419688569il_570xN.2419688569_i1ks.jpg)

The utter lack of pants, the mid-thigh length of the tunic all that's keeping things appropriate (probably (they probably have some festive shorts on beneath (maybe)))!

The candy cane striped stockings!

And of course -- the pointy elf shoes! Yes, ankle-length, fur-lined, coming up to a curling point capped in little poofy snowballs, accentuated with aggressive candy-striped high heels, the works! Just like the traditional shoes!

Yes. It's a perfect Christmas Elf. And right now, that perfect Christmas Elf is slumped against Saika, staring up at the wall as she talks about punching the man who became god who became a zombie god.

"That's a shame," they note blandly, to Yanagi and Saika. "I would've liked to seen it."

Kandori? What he said and did that got Pernelle and Yanagi so interested in him? Saika punching Kandori?

Maybe all of the above.

Regardless, as Pernelle pads off cookie-wards, Tsumugi watches him go with a hooded gaze. Soon enough, they're slumping off the countertop to slink after him quietly like a proper Christmas ~~Cat~~ Elf, and it is when he is emerging from beak-deep within his hidden stash that--

"S u r p r i s e ~ ."

That deadpan singsong rings out behind him, seconds before Tsumugi descends, bringing down a big bulbous red Rudolph nose to snap into place where that swallowed bulb once resided.

Tsumugi will not abide their mascot not hewing to Christmas stereotype standards and practices. They are very much about that. Just look at their outfit!

Of course, for anyone entering, aside from Tsumugi assaulting Pernelle with festivity, they will also be able to enjoy this luxuriously festive song (somehow) piping through the speakers.

    BGM: https://youtu.be/16712yfqGjY - Hurry Xmas by L'Arc-en-Ciel

Christmas miracle? Or someone wasting meta-alchemical talents on nonsense?

You decide!

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    Tamaki thinks the winter is cold enough as it is during daylight hours. The night's worse; the Dark Hour in combination with them, even moreso. Try as she might to struggle to return to some semblance of 'normal', she knows that there's no escaping this fate, that the coloration of the lights and snow is due to more than gleeful holiday magic.

    She does have to admit, she's been in worse winter wonderlands.

    Even her mode of dress is relatively mundane by comparison today. She spent the latter part of the day jogging in an effort to get back into physical shape after a stretch of time that left her inactive, between resting after an encounter gone awry and her university semester finals. Instead of something festive, she arrives in front of Peacock Silk's door the same way she came off the train before the Dark Hour hit: in black-and-grey sweatpants, a matching windbreaker, and a white-and-black checkerboard-pattern scarf worn over a flu mask. A laptop bag rests on the side of her thigh.

    When Tamaki hears the music somehow miraculously playing through the interior of the boutique, she briefly bristles in irritation (why did it have to be that song from that year? just after ...) before she remembers herself and puts on a grin (forgetting that her mouth is hidden behind a flu mask). "Good evening!" She glances around for somewhere to take a seat while she waits for the others and for matters to get started, then takes out a notebook from her bag to flip through. "I come bearing the gift of knowledge! ... in a physical Dark Hour-proof medium."

    After rifling through her notes for a few moments, she looks up at the others to give them a closer look. Yanagi looks even more elegant than usual, the glimpse she gets of the retreating Pernelle indicates that even he's put on something for the occasion, Saika earns several stunned blinks in her direction, and her neck instantly cranes upward when she looks Tsumugi's way.

    Tamaki closes her notebook and gazes at the ceiling as she retreats behind Eriko and quietly comments, "I feel a little underdressed, relatively speaking."
    

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    Masao 'Mark' Inaba's holiday is... well. It's a holiday. He's an only child, and there's that unspoken tension that he's still expected to inherit the family business when his mind, heart, body, and soul are totally all-in on art even with all the strange hiccups and happenings.
 
     This didn't stop him from being spoiled and doted on by his mother, happy to try and make some of those western holiday recipes that he shared with her while he was out studying in New York. (The emphasis is on 'try.')
 
     (It was a very good try. But the emphasis remains on 'try.')
 
     He does need to disengage to see some people about something not at all festive and merry, and given the time of year there's inquiries as to whether he's seeing someone this Christmas. The answer to that, well... one day, maybe.
 
     He's got himself on a festive red hoodie today as one of a handful of layers in this wintry cold - one his mother got for him, it still has the gift tag and everything because he was kind of in a hurry and had to leave lest he fail to make it to that part of Tokyo before the Dark Hour hit.
 
     'I'll let the know,' he responds to the message.
 
     ...
 
     Something about the colors of the Dark Hour seem to match the Christmas festivities in a way he's not sure is artistically sound to his aesthetic tastes, but it's not like they can change any of that, can they.
 
     ...
 
     "Yo," he calls as he comes in, only mildly perturbed at the sound of music (somehow this is more unsettling than Pernelle) and then the sudden surprise of a wholly festive Eriko just getting into things.
 
     It's nice that she's seemingly in a better mood for this, but knowing what they're about to talk about.
 
     "Heh, well... yeah, sure is almost Christmas, huh."

<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.

    Yanagi giggles along with Pernelle. "I know! Tea is common all year, but it's only in winter that you really see these sorts of drinks. You have to take advantage of seasonal items while you can!"
    
    Pernelle's cookies!! Yanagi perks at the concept, even though she recognizes that he's beelining for one of his stashes and the cookie might be toxic. It's the experience, not the taste, that she desires. "Bring something spicy!" she calls at his back.
    
    Saika's desire to beat the shit out of Kandori gets a rueful but also fond look. "Mmm, unfortunately, we were the ones getting shit-beaten," she says. "Even all four of us together would've had a hard time. He was..." Her cheer fades, and she looks over where Pernelle raced off. "...intimidating."
    
    Coming from Yanagi, who fears neither God nor death nor awkward social situations, this is saying something.
    
    She brightens anyway. "But it would've been fun to do it together!" she chirps, bouncing back. Tsumugi laments having not seen it, and Yanagi nods. "Yes--it was truly an unspeakable experience. I think even you would've been taken aback," she tells them seriously. "If it weren't for a timely intervention, we probably would have died."
    
    (She may have tempted Tsumugi and possibly also Saika into a kiss or few already with her mistletoe hair clips to the seasonal swing song on stereo. Mostly Tsumugi.)
    
    But now's not the time to dwell on that. Now is the time to watch as Tsumugi lies in wait and POUNCES on Pernelle the Pea/Red-Nosed Peacock. She giggles again in delight--just in time for Eriko, Masao, and Tamaki to arrive together.
    
    Yanagi perks again to see them--she can perk infinite times, she'll have you know--and waves one hand high over her head with enthusiasm. "Eriko! Masao! Tamaki! Oohoho, Merry Christmas~!" she chimes back in significantly less unaccented, rather more ojou-ish English. Masao states the obvious, and in full earnestness, she replies, "Yes! It sure is! So good to see you all again! <3"
    
    She pushes herself around on her wheely-chair. "Wonderful! I knew I could count on you, Tamaki~" she cheers as she brandishes her notebook. "One turn deserves another!" ...so she says as her wheely-chair continues to spin. She might look elegant, but her behavior is anything but.
    
    Classic Peacock Silk. Doing what's expected is boring.

<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.

It may not be lost on Peacock Silk that Pernelle is rushing about in favor of not discussing the matter of the battle he and Yanagi were part of. This will have to be confronted soon: but not this very moment! Ha ha ha ha ha. Intimidating, Yanagi calls it, and Pernelle's eyes are a little bigger before he's rummaging again.

Pernelle pops up front his stash with a pink, dented and half crumpled box printed with the logo of a nearby bakery. He only has a moment to admire his treasure before Tsumugi is upon him, and with them, the glorious restoration of his Rudolphiestness.

His eyes cross. His beak falls open. A single tear threatens to fall from his eye.

"I am made whole again," he whispers. "Tsumugi, you have transmuted emptiness into a holiday miracle."

There is a new sort of jingle as their guests begin to arrive.

"Is that Santa Claus?!" he cries. Pernelle's eyes light up to see Eriko as he dances back and forth on his talons, eyes sparkling.

"Nicholas von Saint in the flesh! And with a flawless, fresh look, might I add. Merriment made manifest!"

He clears his throat. "I, too, have brought my own gifts for the season. BEHOLD!" Pernelle drops his box and kicks it to the center of the boutique, the top of it conveniently popping off.

Whether or not Saika regrets her lack of involvement is her own business, for without it, what Pernelle presents is a collective of day or two old leftover goods from the bakery. If one does not mind a lack of moistness, this does mean a cornucopia of festive cookies, peppermint sprinkled brownies, and swirly cinnamon buns.

Pernelle puffs up his chest, bringing his wing to his chest, pinions splayed like fingers as his other wing pushes his glasses up his beak. One lens is red. The other is green. "I received these in exchange for my exceptional caroling."

As Tamaki expresses feeling underdressed, Pernelle sweeps out a wing in a deep and flourished bow. "I dare say you have come to precisely the right place! Surely we can assess and redress. But come in, come in, welcome one and all!" He picks up a lopsided, Santa-faced cookie and offers it to Masao.

"Ah, spicy, spicy..." Pernelle plucks up a gingerbread cookie. "Hm. Saika, do you think we could get a small dish of your red sauce? For festive dipping?"

Eventually, they really are going to have to start talking about what they're all here for, Pernelle.

<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.

 
"Hmm... yeah, that makes sense," Saika answers Yanagi, after a momentary digestion of thought when she states quite forth-rightly that if things hadn't developed, they would have died. She scratches her cheek with a beer-chilled index finger. "At a certain point you don't really gain much from extra people in the mix. Not unless you had like a hundred guys, and are there even a hundred people who can move in the Dark Hour?" Maybe in Port Island!

Saika Claus reaches around with her hand not holding a beer to rub along Tsumugi's side in a moment of idle physical affection. "Mm," she concurs with them, before something approaches, with a clatter (or at least, some sound in the eerie space of the Dark Hour):

"I'd say that sounds like Santa Claus but I think Santa's got a ride," Saika remarks in her inside voice when she hears Eriko's approach, before returning in her outside voice with a raise of the beer can, "MERY KURISMAS!"

Tsumugi's already slipped away, so there is very little to keep Saika from stepping forwards to greet the others. "Yo," she says, to Eriko and a smidge later, Tamaki. "Saika," she says, thumping her chest lightly. "Thanks for looking out for Yanagi and Pernelle out there." At this point she takes another more leisurely slurp of beer while looking towards Masao.

"From a certain point'a view it already is," she tells him. "Do you think this hour comes before the first minute of the morning, or after the last minute of the night?" Saika's eyebrows lift. Then she raises her hand, curled into a loose fist, and grimaces as if she's burping silently. In the background there is a screech of recognition!

"Or a cunning impostor," Saika says with a brief, disarming-style grin to Eriko, before THOOP

BEHOLD: FESTIVITY.

"Only thing you can be underdressed for is the weather," Saika tells Tamaki as she crouches down (with a chorus of jingles). to select one of the slightly battered festively-frosted sugar-style cookies in one hand. It's shaped like a festive Christmas tree, with frosting and dots of red and swizzles of white! Saika raises it to bite the tip off. Chew, chew. She finishes her thought to Tamaki: "Wear what you want, it's what I'm doing. You thinking about a new look though?"

"Sure, hold on. Don't start talking about the dire shit until I get back!" Saika says, before holding the cookie in her mouth and *vaulting* back over the counter. At this point it has to at least kind of be a show, right? Do they truly live like this? She disappears up the spiral staircase, and descends with a... a four-jar caddy for... dipping sauces?

Saika brings it back out and crouches to set it down, plucking off the lids one-two-three-four. "d' gld one'f honey an aprict an gld rarun," Saika says around the cookie as she straightens up. The others are clearly forms of Indian chili relish. One of them seems ominous, almost slightly fluorescent.

Saika takes the remains of the cookie out of her mouth and breaks off the base of the Christmas tree. She dips it into the deep-green mix of what is obvious chilis, if perhaps the gentler kind, and brings it up to pop in her mouth. Her eyebrows lift in a look of 'wow, that's a surprise!' as she jingles her way back upright.

<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.

    "Good evening, Yanagi!" Eriko responds, equally chipper. Her mood is high for the moment, because, well... She likes Christmas, even if she is a little American about it, which is to say loud and boisterous. But Yanagi was right, it IS the most wonderful time of the year! Yanagi's refusal to slip into her typecasting is rather charming- but Eriko does rather have a

    Pernelle's seems to be quite enthusiastic about Santa's presence- and while she still doesn't know much about the Peacock's identity, she does have an instinct. "I am flattered, Master Pernelle, but I am merely one of his helpers. Saint Nicholas himself, after all, mustn't been seen while he's working." ...Does she believe Pernelle believes in Santa? Or is she trying to will the big man himself into existence? Who can say.

    Saika can see through her disguise most expertly and Eriko faux-startles. "It seems my disguise is undone!" She's definitely enjoying herself right now, that's for sure. "Eriko Kirishima, it's nice to meet you." She returns Saika's casual introduction, but doesn't expect the full politeness. Still, 'Kirishima' might be a surname that Tsumugi recognizes, as a person also enmeshed in the world of fashion.

    Tamaki may be underdressed, but Eriko waves it off. "It's fine, it's fine, really. I have a tendency to get a bit extravagant around this time of year. The important part is that you're here!" She perhaps should have considered that Tamaki wouldn't really have Christmas plans... maybe next year she should do something about that.

    Unfortunately for Mark, being near Eriko is the least likely thing in the world to get someone a break. "Now now, Mark, almost Christmas makes it sound like it's not Christmas! I think the Midnight Mass would have started just as the Dark Hour struck, so it's Christmas enough for me."

    Still, there is an offer of cookies and baked goods and while Eriko has been with her family the whole night, there's always room for one more cookie- even if she's going to pass on the beer. "Oh my, what a fascinating mix." Eriko says, eying the dipping sauces- but she chooses to stick with the honey and aprictot and whatever 'gld rarun' will be.

    It's just Tsumugi she can't quite get a read on off the bat, but... well. Yanagi and Pernelle were there when Kandori attacked. Peacock Silk deserve to know what they're in for. "...Ah yes, the Dire Stuff."

    Eriko sighs after a moment. The mood isn't killed but... it is a dour topic. "I just want to let you know, before we start, the more you know about this, the more likely you are to end up on certain radars, and make certain enemies. I can't say that you aren't already, admittedly, but if you wish to have some deniable ignorance, now is the time to opt out and we can just enjoy a nice, festive Dark Hour."

    ...She doesn't expect that, though. "...If not, though, we'll do our best to answer what we can."

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    "Just about as close as it can possibly get to it," Tamaki comments to Masao. "Though the date does change right at 12:00, so it must already be," she adds to the topic of time Saika brought up.

    The date did sneak up on her this year. In her mind, Christmas is a holiday for couples, or at least it has been for her the last few years, and this is the first time in a while that she doesn't qualify for that anymore. Even so, Eriko's reassurance is enough for her, and she nods in her direction. "It's good to see you too, Elly."

    "Good to see you, too, Nagisa-san!" When she says that 'one turn deserves another,' Tamaki looks at her expectantly for a few moments, curious what the 'turn' could be. One of those warm drinks on a night like this? (wait, but doesn't water ...) Some festive snacks? Or -- a literal turn of her chair. It takes her longer than she'd have like to have gotten there, but after the delay, Tamaki chuckles at Yanagi's antics.

    The peacock arrives with an array of baked goods, and Tamaki helps herself to one of the gingerbread cookies, something thin and solid enough to slip under her flu mask. (She declines any sauce, though; that's a bit too messy of a prospect for her circumstances tonight.) Maybe being stale Christmas cake can't all that bad ...

    Or so she thinks, just before she pulls the crook of her arm to her mouth and turns to cough. The dryness isn't doing her throat any favors.

    Pernelle's offer to 'assess and redress' and Saika's question about if she's considering a new look cause Tamaki to seriously pause and consider. "Well ... Nagisa-san already modified an accessory for me once, but given the nature of it, I don't get to use it in mundane contexts ..." Her eyes glance in Eriko's direction. "Maybe I could get something like she did, more dual-purpose."

    Her gaze remains directed towards her friend as she turns thoughts over in her head, admiration tinged with envy. Something about Eriko's approach worked where her own had failed. Whatever she's doing here, digging her heels in with her own stubborn, curmedgeonly, grinchlike attitude isn't working. "... either way, I suppose I'm overdue for a change."

    After a beat -- a heartbeat, perhaps, as her temptation to fall prey to Pernelle's eagerness for a distraction and get into that topic right here and now is palpable -- she widens her eyes in panic and flails her arms in front of her in protest. "Waaaiit wait wait wait! W-we have -- we have more important matters to attend to first!"

    She places her notepad on a countertop and taps it. "So tell us, then: what did you encounter?" She looks back to Eriko and Masao -- they're the ones who have directly dealt with the man before, not her, and she's following Eriko's lead on what they're even allowed to talk about.

<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.

Tsumugi gave in to the temptation of mistletoe. Obviously.

Tsumugi always gives in to temptation. For example:

Tsumugi, you have transmuted emptiness into a holiday miracle.

"Yes," agrees Tsumugi, fully and blithely capable - and willing! - of taking shameless credit for making magic of mundane. They rise back up onto their feet, looking back as the jingle-jingle and cold gust of the Dark Hour's dark winds herald the arrival of their guests -- and the neither holly nor jolly topic of their evening.

"And now you're ready to guide our sleigh tonight."

They don't look at Pernelle as they say those words. But it's clear they're meant for him. The nose, you see.

... And it's also clear the words have deeper meaning than exulting the glories of Rudolphianism. Like, perhaps, the topic that Pernelle has certainly not been so quietly anxious to avoid.

The somewhat scandalously attired and terribly tall Christmas Elf emerges moments later beside Pernelle, slender arms stretching languidly over their head before flopping downward to layer over their scalp, flattening down their lovely little festive point-cap in the process. -=click!=- -=click!=- -=click!=- go their candy cane heels as they step back into the foyer, stopping at the entryway to quietly lean their back up against the arch and just... watch the proceedings and greetings, and all that customary small talk occurring in a very uncustomary time, in bland silence.

Festively green eyes shift from one to the other of their trio of visitors. It is, indeed, hard to tell what's going on behind that dispassionate stare -- except that it looks frankly incongruous with all the bright colors they're wearing... and that stare seems to pierce right through them for a moment before moving on to the next consideration of their curiosity.

Introductions are offered. Tsumugi doesn't offer their own, per se. They just look from Masao to Tamaki to Eriko, and greet each one of them by name,

"Masao. Tamaki. Vice-Santa."

... sort of...

Before lifting one hand to wiggle immaculately green-and-red painted fingers.

"Hee-ho ho~."

is that--

do they think jack frost's catchphrase is a christmas greeting or--

Otherwise, though? Otherwise, they seem content to just listen as Pernelle and Saika give their sales pitch to Tamaki ("it's never too late to free yourself from convention," they note absently in a tail end), to Yanagi enthusiastically doing wheelies in her spinny-chair as is the Christmas custom (???), to the talk of Santa Claus and imposters.

No -- they only divert their attention when Eriko introduces herself by her full name. Eriko Kirishima. Their head tilts to an owlish cant, raven black hair spilling over one vibrantly green eye as they peer at her.

"Ara. We're in the presence of fashion royalty."

It could be construed as sarcasm, with the deadpan of their voice. Could, if it were anyone else. Somehow, though, the way they say it, the way they look when they say it --

Coming from Tsumugi, it sounds like praise. No, more importantly, for them:

Like genuine interest.

It's only then that they turn their gaze towards Tamaki and her notebook and the Dire Subjects encroaching. Pernelle might be looking to avoid them.

"I hear you know a dead man who can't stay dead."

Tsumugi looks to dive right in.

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    "Haha, yeah," Masao rubs the back of his head, the other on his hip with the festivities and the smiles. He never imagines he'll be comfortable in the Dark Hour - who would be? please don't answer this question because he probably knows the answer already - it is a festive season and it's okay to feel warm and fuzzy and happy about something even in times like this, right? "It's good to see you..."
 
     'Is that Santa Claus?!' ...How old is that peacock guy?
 
     There is the revelation of slightly-to-somewhat stale cookies, and an odd lopsided Santa cookie given.
 
     "Oh... thanks, yeah, Merry Christmas." Hey. Free cookie. He gives it a bite.
 
     This one might have been a bit more stale than first appears. Oh, well.
 
     Saika asks important questions as to when is considered 'yesterday' or 'today.' "Uhh, I dunno. Over in New York this kinda shit happened in the middle of class, never really had to think 'bout it as 'midnight' 'till I came back to Japan..."
 
     "Christmas enough for ya, huh... yeah, okay, I'll roll with that." Masao is glad that maybe neither of them are practicing lawyers, this feels like the kind of thing that'd make or break a case of delicate semantics for turning about a seemingly open-and-shut case. But enough of that.
 
     He gives Tamaki the side-glance, the knowing nod, and Eriko brings forth what is something nobody can really Merry Anything their way out of.
 
     'Masao.' The street artist looks up at the imposing presence of Tsumugi. The mention of being in the presence of fashion royalty, well, they're not wrong, are they? Still...
 
     'I hear you know a dead man who can't stay dead.'
 
     Masao waits for a bit. Tense moments. He's looking to Yanagi, too, knowing what he does between them. There's some ghosts of the past that were meant to stay buried for a reason, but on the plus side... this is the Dark Hour.
 
     Matsuoka is unlikely to bear down upon them here. Right now, anyway.
 
     "...Yeah," is as he eloquently puts it. It's as far as he's willing to go, until the others among Peacock Silk voice their understanding and desire to know more, ready to follow Eriko's lead or back her up if any part of the recollection or discussion proves too much.

<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.

    Temptation of mistletoe, meet aggressively festive reindeer lipstick...
    
    Stale peppermint brownies!! Yanagi is on that like white on rice. Or... brown on brownies. Hm. Either way, she'll spend some time gnawing on the less-than-moist-and-chewy baked treat. (Saika was wise to pick the sugar cookies instead. The frosting kept them edible.) She pauses when Pernelle offers a gingerbread cookie and asks Saika for festive dipping sauce. "Oooh! I like how you think, Pernelle! <3"
    
    Naturally, she dips her brownie in the green chilis right after Saika and gnaws on it a little more. "Hmmm. It doesn't do anything for the texture," she remarks, and continues to suck the chili off. It's a good flavor for when they do start in on the Dire Stuff.
    
    She will go for the ominous, nigh fluorescent dip later, after they've all had their serious talks. It doesn't matter that it hurts her every time. The pain is outright euphoric, and that's an experience that can't be replicated.
    
    At least the floor show is entertaining. Yanagi all but emits musical notes as Eriko addresses Pernelle as but one of Saint Nick's many helpers, and giggles at her dramatics when addressed by Saika. It's cut by concern, accented by the tilt of her head, when Tamaki breaks into a cough. So she's not just wearing a flu mask to prevent getting sick? However, she doesn't remark on it directly, instead chirping, "I'd be happy to make you a custom accessory sometime, Tamaki! The three of you can get to be a most trendsetting set~!"
    
    Masao mentions that in New York, the Dark Hour took place in the middle of the day. If Yanagi has heard this before, she's forgotten, because her eyelashes flutter in surprise at this news. "Oh my! Right in the middle of classes? What did you do while you waited for regular time to resume?"
    
    Tsumugi locks in on Eriko. Yanagi beams over her shoulder at them, fingers criss-crossing. She knew she'd catch their interest. She doesn't interrupt any mutual greetings for precisely that reason.
    
    Eriko gives a final warning: now's their last chance to remain in blissful ignorance. "Oh, no," Yanagi replies, eerily calm. "It's already too late for that, and anyway, that's just not our style."
    
    She casually tosses the brownie into the trash and folds her hands in her lap. Tsumugi gets right to the point, for all that Pernelle tries to keep faffing about, and its their lead she follows. She catches Masao's look, and the one she gives him back is resolved. "Do tell us more about Kandori, please. Maki's told me some about him and about the Mikage-cho Incident, but..." She sobers. "That doesn't really explain what we saw that night he attacked everyone."
    
    Tamaki prompts them to explain what exactly they did encounter. Yanagi blinks at this before tapping her chin with one finger. "Hmm... hmmm... hmmmmmmm..." She settles her hands back in her lap and meets Tamaki's eyes with the utmost seriousness.
    
    "Tentacles," she states with the gravity of Jupiter.
    
    There was a reason she and Pernelle made takoyaki* together afterwards.
    
    "As for what Maki told me before, she said the Mikage-cho Incident was due to her heart, and Kandori helped make it happen," she adds, adding some perhaps crucial context. "I'd thought he was dead, though. That's what she said. But..." She tilts her head. A dead man who can't stay dead. Tsumugi puts it well. Yanagi nods once, never breaking eye contact.

<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.

"And guide it I shall," Pernelle promises Tsumugi, in quiet severity. This is his beak moving faster than his brain. He remains antsily avoidant.

Eriko reveals that Saint Nicholas isn't to be observed, and Pernelle gasps. "Truly? I was unaware! To think my chimney nests the past couple years were precariously problematic...!"

Does Pernelle believe in Santa...? He's a talking peacock. Maybe it would be stranger not to believe in Santa. How old IS Pernelle, functionally, comparatively? Fantastic question.

"Yaaayyy!" Pernelle cries, in a quite Yanagi-like fashion, as Saika retrieves her sauce caddy. He dunks a cinnamon roll into the ominous, fluorescent sauce for himself. Unfortunately, it's so stale that it doesn't absorb as much as he likely intends. "My thinkings are among the most likable, I should think!"

He still inhales the 'lightly coated' culinary abomination, all the same, rustling his feathers contentedly. "Delicious as always, dearest Saika."

Tamaki seems very nearly accepting of a change, and Pernelle begins to vibrate. "Yes! Wonderful! A whole new you awaits you on this festive, holiest of nights! What could be more romantic than that? Ha!" His eyes are a little too wide, and his beak opens a little too much as he speaks more than he truly laughs: "Ha ha! Ah ha ha!"

There are more important things to attend to first, Tamaki reminds them, and Pernelle's head immediately falls limp, dangling from his long neck. His antlers click clack as they brush against the ground.

"... I suppose... you've... the right of it..." Pernelle heaves a sigh, and crosses his eyes to his Tsumugi-bestowed Rudolph nose. Slowly, he rises back up, clearing his throat and smoothing out his feathers and reindeer vest.

"Yes, tentacles," Pernelle emphasizes.

"Pray, do you have any advice, hypothetically, for an individual marked as a 'meddler' by one such revenant and his reefy patron? Again, hypothetically. Abstractionally. In a speculative sort of way."

He clears his throat.

"And, again, theoretically, conjecturally, purely proposedly, how... concerned should such an individual be?"

<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.

 
Masao has an insight. One that seems to surprise and *fascinate* Saika. "So you were in New York until recently?" she asks him. "Nice. You know anyone in the business? Hah, later maybe." (Maybe she wanted to buy exotic clothing from NYC??)

Saika leans against the counter again. Regarding Eriko, the merriment is put into abeyance as she raises a hand and says, "Hey." Pointing the beer towards her. "Appreciate the sentiment, but I want the truth. If they can hear us in here we're all fucked sideways and upside down, right?" She takes a sip of the beer.

"But I'd rather die knowing the truth than live in ignorance," she concludes.

She lets the festivity slip back in. Saika's eyes cut towards Tamaki for a few moments, saying, "Do we?" on the topic of the accessory, but not pressing that point, even if Tsumugi *just might*. Instead they speak of someone who is dead... Saika looks at Masao... he... *confirms* it...

... Saika finishes off her beer in disappointment, maybe.

"He sounded pretty strong," Saika says, in response to Pernelle's extensive and scientifically impeccable hypotheticals. He has managed to entirely avoid making any kind of explicit assertion, even if any lawyer might find depths of doublespeak he has yet to plumb. Or to apricot, as the case may be. "I mean... we've established this. I want to know how he got that immortality, the kind where you don't die if you're killed."

Having finished her cookies, Saika engages in another jingle-squat to pick up a slightly dry brownie. She spoons some of the golden stuff onto the top of the brownie, since even semi-logical combinations are permitted in this space.

(For those imagining: The four-part chutney collection has the golden one - which has chopped up raisins and apricots in Japanese honey, so kind of tangy - as well as the green one, which has warmth but isn't particularly hot. There's a conventional red one with chili-oil, and then that obscurely dank one. Is it... emanating heat distortion in the winter-dried air? Either way, they all have kick, even if the golden one's the most... rational.)

Saika raises with more clamor but not more words. She chews the sauce-up brownie bite, attention resting on Masao for several long seconds before turning back to Eriko, possibly all-of-a-sudden.

<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.

    Eriko smiles back at Tamaki's nod, and it's a genuine smile. "Christmas is a time for friends and family, after all." And Eriko often feels that those are very important things- especially very important things to look after. And indeed, she's more than ready to enable Tamaki's fashion decisions. "I think you should go for it. I've been very impressed with Peacock Silk's work- and if I'm honest, an outfit tailored to be fashionable and combat ready is worth it. The state our uniforms were in at the end of everything..."

    Ah, yes, she's already remembering. Of course she is- especially after Yanagi mentions what Maki mentioned.

    "...Right, you were occupied that night. As Yanagi said- it relates to Takahisa Kandori and the SEBEC incident."

    Tsumugi's comment, however, catches Eriko by surprise. "Ah-" It's been a while since she's met someone outside of models who know her family name. "I'm... not sure royalty is perhaps the best term- at least not for me. My mother may have earned that title, but I'm just a model." She seems both proud, and a little awkward. "Though she's definitely a reason I wanted to stay in the industry."

    A dead man who won't stay dead. "...Yes. That's the very basic details. Though... I don't think he's a human any more." Eriko sighs, and looks for a place to sit.

    "Please understand, when I say Takahisa Kandori became a god, I mean it literally." If anyone is rolling insight, she's not trying to lie or mislead. She's just stating the truth. "In 2009, he created a world, using Maki's heart as the basis." If Yanagi knows that much, Maki told them. "A world that, if he had not been stopped... I suspect it could have eclipsed this one, but that's just a theory on my end. It initially started leaking into our world."

    There are details she's not sharing, but that's not going to stop people putting two and two together. "There were other entities in that world, but Kandori was the second most powerful. Most of the people in that world had lost their free will, becoming extensions of Kandori."

    Eriko looks around the gathered, making sure everyone is keeping up. Tamaki knows some of this, and Mark lived through most of it with Eriko. Yanagi left Mikage-cho at exactly the right time to get out of town- depending on one's point of view.

    "And... yes we fought him. And we killed him... but it was... complicated. Kandori was a Persona user too- I suspect he awakened before anyone else in Mikage-cho. His persona was Nyarlethotep. The Crawling Chaos. And that Persona took over his body, and mutated him into the form we fought on that full moon."

    Eriko pauses, taking a breath and looking to Mark. "...The last time I had seen Takahisa Kandori before then was when he lay bisected on the floor in front of us, before his body dissolved. But... he was definitely dead, and he died in a world separate from our own, with no body to bring back. That was as far as I know, the end of Takahisa Kandori."

    She pauses again for a moment. "...Until a few months ago. There were rumours about a man called Hisataka Shinjo, secretary to the Foreign Minister, Tatsuzou Sudou. Rumours that Kei investigated. In the mean time, the Joker Killings started in Sumaru." Eriko starts looking around the room, especially to Tamaki who is taking notes. "The Joker Killer was Tatsuya Sudou. Son of Tatsuzou Sudou. And... he believed himself to be communicating with Nyarlethotep- and I think he was, based on the resonance I felt from his room, and that... thing, he summoned once. I initially thought no two people could have the same resonance, the same 'Persona', but... Sudou did. And then, a few months later, we encounter 'Hisataka Shinjo' during the full moon."

    There's a long, long pause. "...He was stronger than he was, when we faced him in that other Mikage-cho. And we weren't nearly up to our full strength. There were... nearly twenty Persona users there that day, and he was toying with us the whole time. He was holding back. We're only alive because..." Eriko frowns. "...Because of that girl's Persona, and Kei convincing him to walk away. If you ask how concerned you should be, Mr Pernelle... I would say very. We couldn't have escaped that night- not between the Ba Gua maze and Kandori's- Nyarlethotep's power."

    It's a lot to suddenly dump, but Peacock Silk wanted answers. "Humans don't have that gaping void where his eyes should be. Humans don't ignore injury like that like it's nothing. Humans can't ignore the laws of physics and reality outside of cognitive spaces the way he can. And in addition to Kandori, if you've drawn his attention, you might have also drawn the attention of the New World Order."

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    "Later, later! I promise." Tamaki pleadingly presses her hands together and leans forwards towards Pernelle and Saika. She winks playfully. "First things first, that's all." The thought's been eating at her for weeks already, and it isn't going to be so easily forgotten, especially after Eriko goads her further into it.

    Something catches in Tamaki's chest when Tsumugi recognizes the Kirishima name. Talk of 'royalty' reminds her of someone else in her profession. Is it that reminder of her own relative position of self-imposed obscurity that causes her to feel this way, or is there some other reason why she uneasily glances between them and Eriko?

    She shakes her head. Tentacles don't immediately ring a bell for her. "I was in Mikage-cho at the time of the incident, but the two of them dealt with him more directly. I stayed behind to help protect my classmates, before and after I fell -- er, after I was knocked out." The less said of that dream, the better.

    As an aside, she comments, "It isn't just limited to you two; like Eriko says, he showed up more recently at a park, but I was waylaid by the one known as the Bride." She clears her throat. "Got lost in that maze, myself."

    "His apparent 'immortality,' however." Tamaki flips up a page of her notes to reference them while she speaks, first turning to Eriko for confirmation to proceed. "May I? Right, well. I don't know for certain, but I have my theories." She looks at each of the Peacock Silk members in turn, hoping to lead them down the garden path so they realize for themselves rather than violate what Matsuoka had sworn them to confidence on. "What other phenomena do you know which can cause something or someone to persist after their corporeal death?"

    Tamaki repeats the words that she and others heard as they leapt from the aeronautics museum's zeppelin restaurant mysteriously made capable of flight: "Speaking of the Joker Killer, what do you make of the phrase 'the Joker never dies?'"

    She looks at Saika, remembering that her Persona is Frankenstein's monster. "Not resurrection of the body." Next, she addresses Tsumugi. "Not some miraculous feat of science or prowess unique to him and him alone." She next settles on Yanagi. "The mechanism, I believe, uses something that persists long after anyone passes."

    Finally, she gazes squarely at Pernelle. "Someone -- or something -- is simply drawing from the same well that any of us do -- 'us' not being limited to Persona-users."

    Her eyes crinkle as she smiles behind her mask and she tilts her head. " ... but perhaps my perspective is skewed, being a rumormonger based in Sumaru. A different lens may end up being more accurate, so take what I've said as you will."

    At Pernelle's question, she slowly turns her head and stares intensely before answering with the weight of knowledge, "Very." Just as quickly, she returns to her previous 'conventional' countenance which adheres to the mantra of 'once-bitten, twice-shy', the shield she puts up in vain to avoid being caught in the narrative's crosshairs once again.

    It's just as much as a final admission to herself as it is the advice that Pernelle had asked for. "There's no wriggling out of it, there's no ignoring it until it just goes away. Even before tonight, you've long since forfeited that privilege. Caution is warranted, running in headlong is just as foolish as pretending as if this were merely a dream that didn't happen."

<Pose Tracker> Tsumugi Kujaku has posed.

Over in New York this kinda shit happened in the middle of class...

"That's convenient," says Tsumugi, dull voice full of dull envy, about something that sounds incredibly inconvenient. But, well. Tsumugi isn't thinking about conventional convenience.

They're thinking about crime convenience!

An entire hour in the middle of class to yourself is a great way to cheat or sabotage, you know. Or gather black mail materials. It's all right there!

Still, right now? Right now, Yanagi surmised correctly: Tsumugi's interests aren't focused on crime potential, but fashion potential, in the form of one Eriko Kirishima. Somehow, the muted nature of their curiosity just makes them seem all the more fascinated as they turn their attention on the occult-enthusiast-slash-model. As she dismisses the idea of being 'royalty,' insisting that she's simply a model, Tsumugi's interest does not ebb in the slightest.

"I know. I've seen your work," they say simply, as if they had to have seen it. "Modeling takes presence. Confidence. You aren't 'just' anything. You have talent." There is a pause there, as they consider her for a moment. And then they say simply,

"You can be royalty, all on your own."

With such unerringly casual confidence that such an absurd statement just sounds disarmingly natural, before their gaze shifts once more, towards some distant point.

"We should talk. Later. It would be interesting."

With that? With that, their attention shifts, changing the flow of the conversation to the topic of this evening with their simple observation on the undying nature of Peacock Silk's newfound - and their guest's well-acquainted - friend. Despite igniting the topic proper, they don't actually lend much to the conversation initially. They just listen, quiet, as the others talk about what Yanagi and Pernelle and Eriko experienced that night -- as they talk about who Kandori is, and what he'd done, beforehand.

A man who became a god. A man who created his own world, where he could define the rules as he wanted.

"..."

Tsumugi's gaze tilts towards the ceiling, a certain sharpness in that deep green gaze.

After a certain point, the purveyor of the Peacock has pushed off their archway perch, the striking -=CLAK=- of their candy cane heel the only alert that they've started moving again. Their trajectory takes them back towards Pernelle and the others and his sadly stale treasure tin of cookies who have long since seen their prime. They crouch, picking one up - gingerbread - before making their way over to the dips.

As the others talk, they dip one edge of the cookie into the green chili dip, coating it calmly. Then, the other end, into the ominous fluorescence. They consider the abomination they have wrought in their hands for a quiet moment, as Tamaki goes over the possibilities for Kandori's return, angling at one in particular.

... but perhaps my perspective is skewed, being a rumormonger based in Sumaru.

"Rumors," they say, contemplating their cookie. "You think he was brought back with rumors." As... something else. Something inhuman. Tsumugi, at least, sounds well-acquainted with the concept, for whatever reason. Which is why they glance back Tamaki's way and wonder,

"But rumors require are bound by the consensus of the collective, aren't they?"

Is Kandori really well known enough for a rumor like that to catch on? Or...

... Or...

Tsumugi prepares to bite into their cookie -- but Pernelle's worries bring them pause. The others, rightly, inform him of the hypothetical dangers he might theoretically be in, having garnered Kandori's attention -- and the one possibly puppeting him. Nyarlathotep. The Crawling Chaos.

Fascinating.

And yet, it doesn't change what Tsumugi has to say on the matter, seconds before they bite into their cookie, right at the junction between slathered dips:

"Nothing will happen to you, Pernelle. We still have things to do.

"After all, you're my Rudolph."

chomp

<Pose Tracker> Masao Inaba has posed.

    "They do awesome work," Masao asides to Tamaki at Yanagi's invitation, showing off the Big Apple Necklace. The labradorite and its light protection properties really came through, some time back!
 
     "What I'd do, well," Masao gives a side-glance, "make sure I'm exactly where I was when it ended..." He'd say the Dark Hour happening when it does here is more convenient in avoiding awkward questions, but there's a lot more Shadows. Maybe it's because of all the weird shit in Sumaru City. "And not get my ass beaten too hard through all that, like... eh," he waves his hand, "another time on that."
 
     He perks up some at Saika mentioning if he knows anyone in the business. "Yeah! Got some good friends over there, like... nobody really in the Persona-user community. But shit, best time of my life so far!" He smiles that silly wide smile he's got, but... it's not lost to him when Pernelle's cheer disappears into horrific dispiriting recollection. "Hey, man," he reaches out with a hand to touch his shoulder if allowed, "that shit is freaky. No shame in havin' that weigh on you..."
 
     How concerned? It's in Masao's eyes, rather than spoken. Especially when it is spoken true that Maki already told Yanagi about some of what happened. In which case, at least one of them already knows.
 
     "Sorry, we'll talk 'bout the New York stuff later," he tells Saika. He lets Eriko take center stage in discussing all that's happened. Oh, man, he really hopes Matsuoka doesn't come knockin'. Sure, the New World Order is magnitudes worse, but you don't forget the angry glare of a huge man that - if there was the possibility of an unawakened human ever doing so - might be able to tear an Ogre's arm out of their socket.
 
     Enough of that.
 
     "She ain't lying," Masao backs it up as she looks to him. "I mean... man didn't just die. Right before we fought, never seen a man more sad that he got everything he wanted. The guy practically won... and still all that shit happened."
 
     The subject moves to Sudou.
 
     "He took over the sanitarium he was bein' kept at. We saw everything in his room," he points to his eyes. He'll never forget the immense horror that came to Eriko, and she wasn't alone there - but it has to be worse for someone so learned in the occult that she was able to call out Nyarlathotep's presence to begin with.
 
     "Kei's all right," Masao says, words that he would not have said in their carefree school days prior to this. The two were always at each others' throats.
 
     "I mean... theories are great, sure, but doesn't change that jackass is back--"
 
     'Rumors.' Masao startles, the way Tsumugi seems to be able to insert themselves.
 
     "Why the hell would anyone in Sumaru City have anything to say of the guy?" Masao voices the concerned thought out loud, "It's... it's bullshit, is what it is, man! After everything we all went through..."

<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.

    "You should think!" Yanagi declares to Pernelle. Tamaki's temptation towards fashion is encouraged by Masao, and she beams at him too. Between her and the brewing rendezvous between Eriko and Tsumugi, Peacock Silk will have some interesting business soon!
    
    ...you know, in addition to all the interesting business they already have.
    
    "I'd love to hear more about it sometime," Yanagi tells Mark of his Dark Hour classes, convenient or inconvenient as they may be. "It must have been a very different experience." Maybe this time she'll remember!! Maybe they can talk about it with Saika too.
    
    Alas, the time has come for the Dire Things. When Pernelle asks his purely hypothetical questions, Yanagi glances at him in concern--it's sweet of Masao to offer him that support--but keeps her own thoughts to herself. That part, she didn't share with Saika or even Tsumugi. It feels like something he ought to say for himself, even if he has to be confronted about it.
    
    Maybe this will be what triggers that confrontation for the rest. For now, Yanagi nods firmly in agreement with Saika. "Live free, die young!"
    
    Tamaki clarifies that she wasn't directly involved, she was mostly helping St. Hermelin students in the background. Yanagi nods, though her gaze goes distant for a moment when the matter of the Bride comes up.
    
    However, Eriko begins her explanation in earnest. Yanagi doesn't question her assertion of Kandori's literal godhood. After fighting him herself, she needs no convincing. A sad man, it sounds like, from Masao's description. The mention of Nyarlathotep gets a slow nod. Yes, she remembers that name too... Her eyes sink. His Persona took over his body... She's seen that before, but only with Artificial Persona Users. To think it could happen to natural Users, too...
    
    Bisection does sound like quite a definitive end. She raises her head with a frown. Hisataka Shinjo... Thinking back, didn't they call him that at first when he arrived in the wake of the Hierophant Shadow? And Kei was the one who got him to stand down... The information about the Joker Killer is very interesting--Yanagi didn't know any of that.
    
    The reminder that Kandori is part of the New World Order, though, gets her to bow her head again. Pernelle, Saika, and Tsumugi don't need to wonder why.
    
    Which is when Tamaki comes in on the matter of that 'immortality.' She asks pointed questions, meeting everyone's eyes in turn. When Yanagi looks up to meet her gaze, her expression is troubled. "...."
    
    She doesn't need to say it. Tsumugi beats her to the punch. There's something else there, about that new world he tried to create from a sick girl's heart. That part gets a huff of an almost-laugh; she glances at Tsumugi in time for them to stare at the ceiling.
    
    She looks back at the others, Masao in particular. "If he's with the New World Order now, they would spread those rumors. They make Persona Users of their own, you know--with limited success. Many of them were swallowed up by their would-be Personas too. Whatever Kandori did, they probably want that power for themselves, and they're more than influential enough to spread a selfish rumor to bring back the dead for their own ends."
    
    What offense he might have taken with their dear Pernelle, she still doesn't understand, but...
    
    She smiles warmly at him when Tsumugi reassures him too. "They're right! We love you, Pernelle. <3 We're with you and you're with us!"
    
    Well. Maybe 'love' is a strong word for some of the people here. That doesn't stop Yanagi from saying it with utter confidence.

<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.

Yanagi's encouragement is usually one that fills Pernelle with incorrigible energy, but the anxiety threatens to engulf his fire. But Masao comforts Pernelle over his manic demeanor, touching a feathering shoulder, not that Pernelle shoulder is terribly large.

"It was, wasn't it?" Pernelle agrees, tone lamenting as he bows his head. "Oh, to think you and yours had dealt with such a predator as pliant minded peachicks! I should hardly complain! W... Wait. What is that? That look in your eye? Oh noooo."

There is a bountiful gift of accursed knowledge to behold. Pernelle is silent through theses explanations of the one called Kandori and her experiences with him. Unsettling! With a dash of apotheosis. But the main take away here is there's a good bit of immortality involved. Getting cut in half dissolving and still having the audacity to go walking around, threatening perfectly innocent peacocks.

"Hm," Pernelle murmurs, his voice several octaves higher and several volumes lower, "Don't like that."

Eriko and Tamaki both verbally emphasize that Pernelle's 'hypothetical' situation warrants a good degree of concern. Higher and softer his voice goes until it is a high pitched whisper.

"Don't like that."

But Tsumugi reminds Pernelle that he is their Rudolph. Their manner and their words leave no room for argument -- not from Pernelle, and perhaps, not even from a Crawling Chaos and the undead man who wields it.

Pernelle finds his natural voice again by drifting into humming a melody that follows when one recalls the most famous reindeer of all. "Just so!" he blurts, interrupting himself. "It was, of course, all horrendously hypothetical...!"

Yanagi declares love, and Pernelle brightens further, dancing back and forth on his claws. "And I, you, unfailingly! There is no doubt in my heart that you are correct. I was not at all imagining packing up cookies and glitter into a sad little kerchief bound to a stick and shuffling along into the streets alone with the gaze upon me! For I... am Rudolph!"

He sweeps into a dramatic bow. "I appreciate your willingness to humor the flights of fancy that formulated these questions, and for your thorough recount of what I understand are unhappy memories and the unfair return of a great foe."

<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.

 
IT'S LEARNIN TIME, SAIKATEERS, and Eriko speaks of things for which Saika has much ardence to listen to. Her eyes do cut towards Tsumugi as Eriko endorses the title they describe - at least hypothetically. Back to Eriko. Her lips thin when she says 'he's not a human any more.'

Her eyes narrow at the statement that he 'became a God.' Her brow knits at the talk of creating a world. She leans forwards slightly. "... A world without end, huh. Encompassing everything? Like, a Big Bang, or something else?"

Good news, they killed him! Maybe. Her lips purse at the name. A Crawling Chaos. She breathes in deeply. BISECTED. That's vivid. That's good language. You don't say someone was bisected casually. "Hisataka Shinjo," Saika echoes. *And* there's a bagua maze. (I want to ask her to elaborate on that so bad!! ugh!! delayed gratification to better fulfill my lusts is hard!! thinks Saika Kikuchi.)

"So it's like he's always in a cognitive space," says Saika, scratching her nose. Though when she says 'the New World Order,' Saika looks, for a moment, at Yanagi, playing in the chair that holds her and keeps her from being stuck in one place. "Depending on how you define it, there's a couple, but the obvious one is ghosts, right?" she echoes after Tamaki. But it's more than that.

"I've heard a lot about rumors," Saika says, "but it seems like... I mean, I'm just thinkin' logically here and that might not be how any of this works, but I can't help it, you know. So this guy, you say, he was in another world, and he died, and then over here," Saika gestures with her beer can, "he comes back, and it's through rumors. What the fuck kind of rumor do you spread that lets you do that?"

"Oi, Pernelle," Saika tells him. "I hear if you eat seven yams and manage to fart for four seconds straight, you resurrect Orochi and he has to give you ten million yen." Back to the others. "Except Orochi is like a guy people have heard of. Did he sort of, use that name, somehow? Was that like his birth name or his true name and there was some kinda rumor the guy used? I guess it's irrelevant," Saika concludes with a wave of the empty beer can.

She crushes it, casually. Saika's hand strength is more than her rather unprepossessing frame would suggest. "Hm," she says, because Yanagi illustrated something. "I guess... you could kind of string together some kind of bullshit edge case, and it might not be obvious. Make up some kind of pair of rumors that kind of add up to 'do this and you can bring someone back,' do it to him. I guess the real question is how they knew to do it."

Saika gives Pernelle a long and thoughtful look. Maybe that says more than any effusiveness could. Maybe she's still holding a grudge about the tandoor. Hard to say. She's certainly sounding more meditative, more thoughtful, than she did. "Well put," she says. "And Tsumugi's right. We'd all be looking out for you. From beak to that one feather that's looking kinda crooked." ah, revenge.

 Looking back to Eriko and Masao, she asks, "This Kei person. Do we need to worry about them doing something dangerous? Staring down a god -- and actually, go back and tell me more about the ba gua maze thing?"

(NAILED IT)

<Pose Tracker> Eriko Kirishima has posed.

    Eriko blinks a few times as Tsumugi speaks not of Eriko's mother's work, but Eriko's own. That's... unexpected. "I fear the photographers might disagree," Eriko says, through a smile. A smile that feels forced and fake, unlike the one she had a few seconds ago when she was enjoying her Santa antics (Santics?) earlier? Indeed, the empty smile shifts away when Tsumugi says that they should talk later. "Oh, of course, I'd be happy to!".

    This might be the first time Eriko has seen the Big Apple necklace, but she can admire both the workmanship, the spell protection and of course it's New Yorkness. More importantly, Mark covers some angles that Eriko herself fails to, focused more on the order of events and supernatural nature of things. Still, that unease Mark is carrying gives Eriko a moment to pause and try and work out what's got him on edge. "I'm not doing this all on my own," Eriko whispers to Mark. "Don't worry."

    Tamaki lays out her theory about rumour being the method of resurrection, and Eriko frowns. "...I can think why people might talk about Kandori," Eriko says, after a few moments. "...Did you notice the scar on Kandori's face, Mark?" She draws an X across her forehead as she says so. "...And, well... I hear Reiji's tidied himself up since the last time you saw him. Short hair, suit and tie." She's being oblique, of course- it's not her job to bring up Reiji's parentage, but even saying what she has might force things to come out. "...What I don't understand is why. The method they used for Maki-chan... I don't know they could do that with just anyone." Eriko frowns again. "...On the other hand, more types of cognitive spaces are cropping up. Mementos, Palaces, Ateliers, Kingdoms..." Eriko frowns again. "...And that's not even considering places like Tartarus."

    It's Yanagi's casual mention that they are already familiar with the New World Order and that they're *creating* Persona users that catches Eriko entirely by surprise. "...They're doing what?" For once, it's Eriko who is thrown by new information. "Why would they- *how* would they do that?" ...wait, why does *Yanagi* know that?

    "...I know there are different methods of awakening, beyond the Persona Game, but..." Eriko did, after all, have one of the 'gentler' awakenings of people she's known. Still, her brain keeps jumping forward. "...but why bring Kandori back at all? He used the technology, but he didn't create it. And the scientists who worked on the project are either dead or accounted for. If they know what he used, why wouldn't they just use rumours to get the means themselves, rather than using Kandori?" She frowns again, brow furrowed. "I knew they were manipulating rumours, especially since Wang Long Fortune Telling disrupted all the other methods..."

    Eriko can sympathise with Pernelle's straightforward response. "...Neither do I," Eriko says, of the likability of the situation. "It's... messy, to say the least." Still, there's a wistful smile that comes to Eriko's lips when Pernelle says that he appreciates their willingness. "They're not bad memories, at least not for me. It may sound strange, but it was a wonderful adventure. I made friends, I found my true self, I got turned into a statue and got to see *so* many mythological beings and monsters..."

    I met and lost my best friend, and fell in love.

    "...I suppose that's a good way of looking at it. It might be that he can create his own at any point, that he controls." Still, the way Saika described things. "...Not exactly 'without end'. The original world was very small, and it isolated the real Mikage-cho from everywhere else. And the other world... well." Eriko's lips draw tight as she considers how to phrase it. "...that world could contain anything a human heart could. At the time, it was the city but... there were other places it went to. And other beings that found it."

    Eriko shakes her head as Saika asks about Kei. "...Kei is many things, but unduly reckless is not one of them. If anything... Kandori respected Kei the most out of all of us, at the end. And..." Eriko pauses again and frowns. "...I don't know he ever shook his perception of Maki-chan. Or... part of Maki-chan, at least."

    Thee Ba Gua maze, however, does get Eriko talking. "I've been working on deciphering it myself, the Bride has a similar power but this one is based in the Kimon Tonkou formation- the Stone Sentinel Maze tactic that Zhuge Liang created during the three kingdoms. I haven't fully deciphered it yet but I think I have an understanding, but I need to do some more research to work out how to counter it..."

    Ah. Yes. You have activated Occult Talk with Eriko Kirishima. You may or may not regret it.

<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.

    Tamaki quietly stares at the exchange between Tsumugi and Eriko, then glances away and decides to distract herself with another cooke (and subsequent coughing fit). That's a world beyond her reach.

    'Rumors,' Tsumugi says. Mark brings up Sumaru specifically. Tamaki cants her head just as she did before, shakes her head at them, then nods at Saika. "I fear that the rumors of Sumaru City are a subset, a much more recent phenomenon, one verse in a longer song. They certainly weren't a factor in Mikage-cho, now, were they?"

    If it were that easy to revive someone, true or not, Tamaki would already have done so in a heartbeat. The thought's crossed her mind to bring back someone she had once cared for. But what need is there to do so when all she has to do is to carry her memory forward herself?
    
    She continues, building on what Eriko had listed. "Instead, a new world formed from the wishes of one girl and the man taking advantage of her. In current times, we also see petty tyrants rise up in charge of their Palaces. We know of a few other ways that the mind can shape reality, such as the Ateliers that yourselves are the primary experts on, and I know of at least one beyond what she's listed."

    She gestures in Tsumugi's direction at the mention of the collective. "I think that's getting closer to it. Stories which predate Sumaru persisted long enough to later spring to life, but that's not the only case we've seen of it."

    "Is Kandori the true face of our opponent? The New World Order? What part of the collective unconsciousness causes a Persona such as Nyarlethotep to exist? What caused Sonomura-san to act in the manner that she did? What such shortcomings do we all have?" She looks over at Eriko, believing she would understand this thought: "Kandori may as well be Ozymandias, a symbol of someone who reached godhood and was still cut low."

    She ends her thoughts with a shrug. "I fear I lack the language to cut at the true heart of the matter. Just taking note of the patterns I've seen over the years."

    While her friend starts going on about the maze -- an experience that she doesn't care to relive verbally herself right now -- she looks back over at the cookies, then at Pernelle. "My other piece of advice is something I think you already take well to heart. In the face of such heady matters, I like to have a good meal, partake in some earthly delights and creature comforts. I find the act grounding, anchoring. A reliable informant has told me that you also enjoy ... tater tots, was it? Want to go and get some together sometime?"

<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.

    The conclusion of Pernelle's definitely-absolutely-unquestioningly-hypothetical hypotheticals is the raising of his spirit. Yanagi knows for a fact that they are not hypotheticals, and she smiles at him fondly all the more for it.
    
    She also knows for a fact that not a single one of Pernelle's feathers are crooked, and she snorts with laughter over Saika's sneaky revenge. She won't intercede on this matter either. It's part of the fun!
    
    How did the New World Order know to string rumors together in just the right way to manipulate someone into life? "Hmmm... Probably they heard about him from someone who was there at Mikage-cho, right?" she muses. "Or maybe more like they heard about Nyarlathotep... They know quite a lot about the occult. Maybe bringing Kandori back was an unhappy accident."
    
    Of course, Tamaki points out that capital-R Rumours are a recent thing. Yanagi can only shrug. Peacock Silk may be the foremost experts on Ateliers, but there certainly are many more cognitive worlds around now, as Tamaki and Eriko both mention. It could be that there's a totally different cognitive world involved here, different even from what was born from Maki's heart.
    
    Kandori definitely did seem to respect Kei, and Maki herself, well... It does seem like things are complicated there from what she told her. Yanagi doesn't know Reiji (at least, not offhand), but it does seem like there's connective tissue there, if Eriko's musings are any indication. Yanagi gets to surprise her, too!
    
    "Hmmm... I don't really know the how... as for the 'why'... hmmm..." She looks up, wide-eyed. "I don't think a glib answer exists!"
    
    It's just as well Eriko didn't ask how or why Yanagi knows this. The answer would horrify even her. Unlike her casual mention of turning into a statue, which has Yanagi gasping as her dark eyes sparkle. What a unique and bizarre experience!! "You have to tell me more about that, Eriko!! What was it like to be a statue of all things??"
    
    ...They might get a bit sidetracked at this rate, especially with Eriko's Occult Talk activated, but they've all got a lot to chew on for now.
    
    At one point: "Oh! Ozymandias! Like that poem! Saika! That poem!"
    
    She's so excited to recognize a cultural reference...!

<Pose Tracker> Pernelle has posed.

In all of the fretting, all of the doom and all of the gloom, and every possible dire fate and worrying rumor...

Most of all, Pernelle gasps as Saika mentions a crooked feather, and he begins chasing his own train. "What? Where? Where?" He stops, looking to Saika with bright, glossy eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Saika... wise, powerful Saika, you tell these fibs to distract me from my worries and woes...! I remain in awe of your compassion"

Tears streaming, he hugs into her leg. She is only freed by the mercy of Tamaki, who says the magic words.

Pernelle gasps, and his glasses pop off of his beak as he sparkles, iridescent.

"Yes."

<Pose Tracker> Saika Kikuchi has posed.

 
Saika attends to what Eriko says, though she seems to regain a little bonhomie when it turns out that *they* knew something *she* didn't (Yanagi, and however she came to them - did they find her in a peach tree, somewhere?)

And this Kei... he sounds like a cool guy. Reaching up to scratch one antler with a small chorus of jinglings, Saika finally hears about the Ba Gua maze as well as the Kimon Tonkou, the Zhuge Liang created during the three kingdoms, and a bunch of other words, many of which Saika knows. "Ah, so it's like that," she says to Eriko, with a nod. "I understand what you mean, yeah."

^^^-- this person did not get it at all

Though to Tamaki's comments, Saika looks. "... That's a lot of questions at once," she says. "I figure if you're going to get a real answer to any of them, you'll have to pick one and start there. If you can't make any headway, pick another. It'll probably all come together if you go far enough."

optimistic??

And then Tamaki says THE T WORD . . . . . . . .

O word! O word! Better word. Saika's eyes turn up towards the distorted ceiling of the Dark Hour and she says,

"And on the pedestal these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains..."

... she trails off. Maybe she didn't, actually, memorize that entire poem.

Or maybe it's not a poem for Christmas.