2026-09-17: Contents Of The Heart
- Log: Contents Of The Heart
- Cast: Kanae Fuyuki, Isabeau Fontaine
- Where: Shinichi's Atelier
- OOC Date: September 17, 2026
- IC Date: January 11, 2013
- Summary: Kanae and Isabeau infiltrate Shinichi's Atelier. The horrors within go beyond bickering, and they fundamentally differ on some important matters. Nevertheless, they work together. CW: Horror, gore, misogyny.
MONAD: A party led by Kanae Fuyuki has begun the event Shinichi's Atelier: Cinvat Mikage-Cho.
(|============= Monad - Shinichi's Atelier: Cinvat Mikage-Cho ==============|)
-==== Round 1 - Challenge Level 2 ===========================================-
| Card: In These Halls, Terror |
| Approach Options: Academics or Proficiency |
| Conditions: Ineptitude - Proficiency Down L2, Shuffle - Draw 1 Minor |
| Arcana., and Stupor - Academics Down L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjYxvF-J7Fo
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
You appear in what looks like a darkened school hallway. Shine some light on
a bulletin board though and you can see that this is actually Our Lady of
the Holy Stoat Middle School, in the town of Mikage-Cho.
But it looks like it's been abandoned for months. The only light on down the
hallway flickers pathetically every so often, the classroom doors won't
open, and even if forced open, one runs into a great barricade of debris
behind each of them.
With whispers and whimpers behind them, shushes and calls for quiet. One may
see why in short order. Flegmat Humors wander these halls, mumbling, their
forms taking the shape of huge sickly Oni with unkempt purple manes,
dragging clubs behind them. Dog-headed ones half their size flanking them.
They look like demons- demons from that time, but warped, as if to fit some
half-remembered watercolor of them.
If you listen to their mumbles long enough, you may pick out the words for
'Filial Piety' and 'Divine Punishment' at least, as they wander the
labyrinthine halls, eyes glassy. If one enters their field of vision, then
they freeze, then begin to charge, screaming expletives and swinging their
clubs wildly.
In order to get past them, you must expertly navigate these halls through
the occasionally posted, confusing floor plans, keeping out of sight.
Of course, you could just fight them, but that'd be an exhausting slog, and
energy you can't afford to expend here at the beginning.
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Go to the internet cafe, log into the site, and...
Once more, Kanae Fuyuki and Isabeau Fontaine stride into a dungeon. Once more, the Hunters hunt. ...But this time, it's different; their relationship is different, for one. And their relationship to the owner of this Atelier is very different.
Kanae draws her hat down, and narrows her eyes at what she sees, at the drip drip dripping of this place.
A darkened school hallway... a bulletin board. "...Guess it's a Christian school," Kanae comments. But the abandoned look--the flickering lights...
Whispers, shushes, calls for quiet. Kanae sees an Oni--and darts around a corner. Demons... but warped.
"Sight lines," Kanae comments. "If we can see them, they can see us. We need to get around them--use our other senses."
"...Bet I can stay quieter," she murmurs.
She's not going to fight. She's going to use her brain.
Though her gunblade is at the ready... Just in case.
MONAD: Kanae Fuyuki has acted with Film Talk toward In These Halls, Terror! Smarts and Efficient!
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Why are we back in middle school?", is the first thing Isabeau asks -- in French, naturally.
Didn't you know?
She was living in Mikage-Cho, during the incident...
In her longcoat, slung over one arm, she scowls. "Catholic," she corrects her, sharply. "Saint Hermelin isn't really a Christian name. And these flyers..." She scowls, as she examines them. "... they don't describe any activities we had."
'We?'
"Bah," she snorts, when Kanae points out sight lines. "The most basic of the basic tenets... of course I won't forget! If this is anything like it was -- follow me."
Isabeau doesn't need a floor plan, after all... if she attended this school herself.
MONAD: Isabeau Fontaine has acted with Trapper's Tactics toward In These Halls, Terror! Focus and Patra!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== In These Halls, Terror - Round 1 ======================================- Kanae Fuyuki Academics Success Film Talk Smarts and Efficient Fatigue: 0 Morale: 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Isabeau Fontaine Academics Success Trapper's Tactics Focus and Patra Fatigue: 0 Morale: 2 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Ineptitude-2, Shuffle: Wand-0, and Stupor-2 Final Conditions: Ineptitude-1 -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 1/6 |= | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae is also speaking in French, for Isabeau's benefit. She uses it often enough at home, these days. But Isabeau corrects her; Catholic rather than Christian. It seems a fine distinction to Kanae, but it's right, so she doesn't argue it. "Right." Pause. "...Hm. Makes sense, though--this is like, some sort of twisted reflection, isn't it? It's made up of Shinichi's impulses, not the real place."
But, as it happens--the floor plan is the same. Isabeau knows, and Isabeau leads the way. Kanae, as it happens, is even quieter--so she wins that one.
...But Isabeau also knows the way, and as a result...
"...So you went here too," Kanae comments softly when they're out of danger. "Did you know him?"
MONAD: Isabeau Fontaine has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Shinichi's Atelier: Cinvat Mikage-Cho ==============|)
-==== Round 2 - Challenge Level 2 ===========================================-
| Card: The Future Promise I Walked By, Missing |
| Approach Options: Academics or Charm |
| Conditions: Bothersome - Charm Down L1, Ineptitude - Proficiency Down L2, |
| and Stupor - Academics Down L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
Once out of the school, a little origami angel-spirit floats towards you to
get your attention. Those familiar will recognize it as a part of Peacock
Silk Navigator Yanagi Nagisa's Persona, Giselle. Once it has your attention,
it floats away, appearing and disappearing, to guide you in a certain
direction.
Soon enough, it brings you to Yanagi herself, resplendent in her
brilliantly-colored Transmutation with her rainbow skirts, sunset pink hair,
and peacock green eyes. She smiles at you as her needle-limbed Persona
pirouettes behind her, and points towards a particularly thick patch of fog.
"Over there is St. Hermelin High School. Use it for a secret passage to the
core of this Atelier," she tells you.
So you go... but the fog doesn't lighten any. In fact, it gets only thicker
and colder... until...
"HEE-HO!" "HEE-HO!" "HEE-HOHOHO, WE GOT 'EM NOW, BOYS!"
Several misshapen Jack Frost Humors leap up to surround your group and
freeze the ground beneath your feet solid!! The slick footing makes it near
impossible to fight back effectively as they swoop in to attack--but the
suddenness also means it's not an even freeze. If you can identify a solid
enough launching point, maybe you can use the ice in your favor to make a
hasty getaway. Otherwise, maybe you can (ahem) /snow/ these Frosts by
complimenting them on how sneaky their ambush was?
Either way, afterwards, one of those little origami spirits floats down
before you and unfolds into animation paper that displays the following
message:
/Sorry, the high school was a lie. Good luck! <3/
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I don't know if he remembers me," Isabeau scowls. "They decided I was a 'Witch' out here... so I can't account for sticking in his head. The fake doesn't know, certainly. But there was a gas leak, three... I suppose now it's four years ago? You know how these stupid people insist on using gas to heat everything? Back then, the high school had a really serious gas leak... everyone who was around got messed up. Tchah, even my step-grandmother... if he wandered into the high school, maybe his head was cooked. It would explain a lot."
But there -- Kanae will have to introduce the spirit, because Isabeau tries to stab it. "Do not sneak up on us!" She chastises Yanagi, in stilted Japanese, as if that were her fault. But the high school -- "... bah, his head was very cooked?" She wonders, and then adds, to the woman, sharply: "Think not of that."
In they go, through the fog... as it clings to their skin, sinking in through the layers of Isabeau's vest and coat, causing her to only make the situation worse with fogged breath spiralling through the chill.
But the cold isn't just in the air... it's in the ground. "Trap!" Isabeau barks -- in French, again -- as that chorus of HEE-HO echoes through the air; her warning may well let Kanae leap free, as she does, in the tiny window they have before all the ground freezes.
"Kill them!" She declares, and cares not for what label the Humour is plastered with as she does. 'Friendly' Humours are as easily killed... and ought to be. Running? No.
Violence.
Though it's violence she needs to be constantly thinking about, with the slippery footing...
And so, the origami spirit appears again, and --
"I'LL SHOVE THIS SPEAR STRAIGHT UP YOUR --!!"
Luckily, she snaps this in French, so it's probably unintelligible.
MONAD: Isabeau Fontaine has acted with Trapper's Tactics toward The Future Promise I Walked By, Missing! Focus and Patra!
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
A 'witch'... Kanae doesn't show sympathy; it's the wrong time, and it would just annoy Isabeau. A 'gas leak' though gets Kanae to lift an eyebrow. "Right,' she says. "...I guess."
Kanae throws her hand out in front of Isabeau. "Hold on," she says. "It's not an enemy--and you couldn't hit it anyway."
It seems familiar to her... and when they reach Yanagi, there they go. "Secret passage, huh...?"
Kanae nods. "Thanks."
Kanae keeps her weapon at the redy as they go, because the fog is getting worse by the moment. The chill doesn't bother her, but the lack of visibility does--until suddenly Isabeau barks trap, and Kanae leaps free.
"Isabeau!" ...But there's no getting Isabeau out of her rage. Kanae considers a moment--
Well, Leshy resists Ice anyway.
So Kanae takes her position afar, watching a moment as isabeau fights. It might seem that Kanae has left Isabeau to die, for a bare moment.
Only a moment. "VALKYRIE!" Kanae shouts, and slams down into the ice, shattering it around her.
Her Persona appears, and her blades cascade all around, inflicting panic on the Jack Frosts. Or, well... 'Jack Frosts'.
"Keep them off of me," Kanae directs Isabeau, "And I'll take them all down!"
A shattering of the walls between identities, and Kanae crushes her gold dust again. "OROBAS!"
The flames dance through at the horse-demon's command. "..I saw an action movie with a sequence on ice."
When they get the note...
"She's got an angle," Kanae says to forestall Isabeau's anger, to help mollify her. "Let's find out what it is."
MONAD: Kanae Fuyuki has acted with Film Talk toward The Future Promise I Walked By, Missing! Smarts and Efficient!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== The Future Promise I Walked By, Missing - Round 2 =====================- Kanae Fuyuki Academics Success Film Talk Smarts and Efficient Fatigue: 0 Morale: 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Isabeau Fontaine Academics Success Trapper's Tactics Focus and Patra Fatigue: 0 Morale: 4 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Bothersome-2, Ineptitude-1, and Stupor-2 Final Conditions: Stupor-1 -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 2/6 |== | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Kanae retreats, but that's just fine; the monsters have revealed themselves, and now fall to her spear, and all is good in creation. "COME!" She hollers, as the Jack Frosts squark "HOO?!", not expecting their snacks to turn around and bite back. She has to wrap her legs around a glassless inner window to bend backwards and stab one of those horrible little creatures with her spear collapsed to a knife; she shoves the grip into her mouth, as she presses her hands to the ground, feeling through her protective gloves for the place where the ice is thinner against the join of the wall, and grips it as she pushes herself up into a vicious handstand which sends her off to the other side of the hall -- one leg braced up against the wall as the other slides into the place where the slippery floor joins it.
There, Kanae summons her courage -- to hear Isabeau tell it -- and burst in with panic and flame. "... all right," she snarls, as she shoves her knife back in its holsters for a moment. "It's time! Mielikki!"
Isabeau, as it happens, uses drugs. Crushing a bronze vial in a hand, that waspish, vexing fairy rises, to weave the protection of the forest around Kanae. Two of the Jacks Frost (if we use both pluralisations we can maximise how wrong we are!) try to pincer her, only to be consumed in Orobas' flame -- and a third doesn't even manage to get through his, "ULTIMATE ICE PIERCING ICICLE ATTACK--!!" before the horse takes him down, too.
The last of those Humours, afflicted by Valkyrie's panic, scrambles down the hall -- and it's too slippery for Isabeau to pursue. Once they're out of the arena, at least, the ground becomes a little more stable...
"You're not bad when you actually try," Isabeau supposes, shrugging a shoulder. "Perhaps movies are good research material..."
But Kanae insists Yanagi has an angle, as Isabeau expands her spear to brandish it at the spirit, and Isabeau snaps back: "She can have this angle if I have anything to say about it!" A wave of that spear indicates just how sharp that angle is. "Bah... but you want to know what she's on about? Fine."
Isabeau scowls, as she stalks forward. "Are you sure that's even Nagisa-san...? The one I met was actually helping us..."
... there she goes, using honourifics again.
MONAD: Kanae Fuyuki has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Shinichi's Atelier: Cinvat Mikage-Cho ==============|)
-==== Round 3 - Challenge Level 3 ===========================================-
| Card: To Gamble on Your Future, Know What You Are Willing to Lose |
| Approach Options: Proficiency or Academics |
| Conditions: Bless - +1 to Group Roll (Per Character), Ineptitude - |
| Proficiency Down L2, Shuffle - Draw 1 Minor Arcana., Stupor - Academics |
| Down L1, and Stupor - Academics Down L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
While traveling the cognitive Mikage-Cho, you pass through the Atelier's
version of the Mikage Sun Mall. The exterior is dilapidated, and within,
most of the stores have been looted and burned out. Hostile Humors lurk, but
there's one storefront that's still solid and thus defensible: the chain
casino, Judgment 1999. You sneak in to wait for a chance for the enemies to
thin and pass through the mall.
As you wait, you see inside that most of the gambling machines are broken,
save one: Code Breaker. In this game, you guess numbers for prizes, and the
more you guess correctly, the better the prize you get. But beware, for if
you fail to guess /any/ numbers correctly, you'll have to fight through a
swarm of Coleric Humors to flee the mall...
Use your smarts to calculate the odds. Otherwise, luck is also a skill!
OOC: The "numbers" are based on total successes vs. failures, including the
overall success/failure! The prizes can be items, money, weapons, or armor,
based on your preference; feel free to use this to justify an upgrade.
Contact Shinichi's player for a guideline of what you might win, or else
just go for money.
If everyone succeeds, you win a super premium prize! If there are more
successes than failures, you get a good prize! If there's an equal number of
successes to failures, you get a decent prize! If you get more failures than
successes, you get a mediocre prize! And if everyone fails, well... Better
hope you don't...
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Kanae Fuyuki has posed.
Kanae would say, instead, that she was analyzing the enemy's capabilities. Their lack of area attacks meant that she could afford to switch to an ice-weak Persona, knowing Isabeau's defensive capabilities.
Is she really willing to trust her life to that girl...?
Jacks Frost are jacked up. "Heh," Kanae says, and her mask shatters again as she returns her Persona to Leshy--her baseline. "They can be. ...But when I can work with a group, my flexibility goes a long way."
Still, Isabeau mentions an angle--but... hmm. "No, I'm not," Kanae admits. "But I suspect it was. ...Well, whatever. We'll find out one way or another. It's Shinichi who matters to us right now."
Pause. "It's weird when you use honorifics," she comments, then turns on her heel and keeps walking.
Cognitive Mikage-cho stretches on ahead, and Kanae spots a mall. Being a red-blooded teenage girl, she is interested. She glances in... "Hmm. Might be something useful in here," she comments, still in French--and then steps inside. She sneaks through. "We can use that one as a defense point..."
But soon: Code Breaker. "...Numbers for rpizes, huh..."
Kanae glances at Isabeau. "Let's do it. I might be able to get a new Persona out of this."
Why not? It's possible.
"I've seen tons of heist movies--the trick is to count what you see, and what's not there, because they don't always re-use it. So, if we can calculate..."
Let's find out!
MONAD: Kanae Fuyuki has acted with Film Talk toward To Gamble on Your Future, Know What You Are Willing to Lose! Smarts and Efficient!