2026-09-21: A Map for the Atelier
- Log: A Map for the Atelier
- Cast: Kazusa Motojima, Isabeau Fontaine
- Where: Kazusa's Studio, Electric Town - Main
- OOC Date: September 21, 2026
- IC Date: Sunday, January 13, 2013
- Summary: Isabeau surprises Kazusa at her studio, bringing information about Shinichi's Atelier. But the conversation quickly turns contentious, and ends with Isabeau storming off.
(|=========================== Electric Town - Main ===========================|)
-========================================================= Tokyo/Akihabara ====-
A sacred place for otaku, not just within Japan but worldwide. Here, it's so
mainstream to be a geek that it circles back to being cool again. That is,
unless you harass the staff of the businesses here whose job requires them to be
a part of this culture, or the cosplayers who work so hard at their costumes
that it's practically a second job for them.
Arcades and gaming shops alternate with manga stores full of merch that's so
pricy as to make any broke fan envious. Collectors line the streets for the
chance to trade for the rarest gachapon finds. Maid cafes and popups with menus
designed to profit off the latest hits in the weekly manga collabs and/or old
favorites from two decades ago cater equally to tourists and locals alike.
Anywhere on earth may be a heaven or hell depending on who you are, but that may
be truer than most places for Akihabara.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa, for all her prior mean girl ways, often tends to prefer to keep a low profile. Doubly so these days, with the threat posed by Shinichi's Homunculus now made clear. She's done her best to keep things together at class, where she has to sit in the same classroom as the threat, but in her private moments she's been jumpy, nervous, and on-edge.
And she's been looking over her shoulder a lot in public, as well.
Still, if one were to go looking for her, those in the Persona User community might have an advantage. Especially those who helped deal with Kazusa's Homunculus. And especially especially anyone claiming to have excellent tracking skills.
There's several old concrete buildings a short distance away from Akiba that used to be warehouses but have been renovated into apartments. And in a certain one, on the top floor, in a corner unit... is a studio.
Kazusa took a circuitous route to get here today, and having gotten in and put her things down, she's trying to relax and get her mind into something productive, but... she's not made much progress yet.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Knock, knock. "Motojima!" Beat. "Motojima-san," as if remembering. "I am me."
She probably meant 'it is me', which is just another reason, aside from a voice that couldn't be missed, that that's Isabeau Fontaine. She has not kept a low profile; rather, she has kept an eye on Shinichi, as school's started.
This hasn't always gone well for her. Don't worry about it.
She is, at least, knocking at the door, in her jeans and knit jumper. Perhaps she's not trying to freak her out.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa would be extra freaked out to see ISabeau at her window. Being on the fifth floor and all. Still, Kazusa jumps at the sudden sound, fumbling with her canned coffee before taking it firmly in hand. "Wha-!?"
She whirls around to face the door, and then there's a heavy sigh as she processes who it must be.
When Kazusa opens the door, she's not dressed as she normally is. Her hair is up in a messy bun affixed by two pencils, she's wearing a pair of blue light glasses, along with an oversized pink hoodie, purple sweatpants, and pink house slippers. "Fontaine-san," she says with a hissed voice. "Get in here before you let the whole district know where I am!"
She steps back. By the door is an unfinished concrete area, a genkan, and a tiny step up is finished concrete that makes up the rest of the studio loft. Along the left is a closet, bathroom, and a small kitchenette area, in front of it a round wooden table, and in the corner a folding table with some calligraphy and ikebana supplies. (Those are new, from the last time Isabeau was here.)
The loft takes the corner directly to the right--up above isn't a bed or a futon but cardboard boxes. Beneath it is Kazusa's desk, a mood board on the wall, and several bookshelves stacked filled with manga, DVDs, games, and reference books.
"What are you even doing here?" she demands. "And were you followed?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Do not panic," Isabeau chastises her, harshly, as she steps inside. "And do not speak of me as if I am amateur. I will leave this moment if your will is to disrespect me so."
She folds her arms, as she leans against the wall. "I come to tell you of the hospital," she says, sternly. "Kanae... san and I, already have scouted its grounds. Of the ones which say they are harmless, those Shadows are girls and women, twisted to ill ends. Of the ones which say they do harm, they are orderlies and doctors, but first they are torturers. Force led us forward, but the sight of vivisection is like to affect you. Prepare yourself now to succeed."
No 'hello'?
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"I'm not panicking!" snaps the mildly panicking KAzusa. "I'm being cautious." She stares at Isabeau for a moment. Is that all it would take to get her to leave?
It's tempting... but Kazusa sighs and steps inside after locking the door. "Well you're here now you may as well come in. Do you want something to drink?"
Kazusa slips the classes off and pockets them, then crosses her arms. "... The... hospital? We already took the Thread there," she says with a frown. "Why would you be..."
"Harmless... Shadows. Right, the... the..." Kazusa snaps her fingers for a moment. "Sanguins. Wait--the Atelier is a hospital?"
"Doctors and..." Kazusa frowns. And then she recoils. "Wh-- wait are you serious? What kind of messed up hospital has--" She turns away, to try and hide the unease on her face. "... W-well... thanks for the heads-up. I do can't be done with this Homunculus soon enough."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau does not answer her desire for beverages. She's busy with operational dialogue. What a jerk!
"The Atelier hospital," Isabeau clarifies, tersely. "It is in Mikage-cho, or some memory of it... though the Atelier starts in the middle school. Ah, here," she slings off her backpack, and pulls out a thin folder, "I have sketched the layout of this for your reference. You are fortunate I attended this myself, before I came to Tokyo."
There, Isabeau has sketched out what she remembers of places in Mikage-cho -- like the middle school, and the mall -- as altered by the strange decay of the Atelier. There are still plenty of places marked 'as recalled'... where one may have to place large 'X's to indicate paths no longer traversible.
"The surrounds are all run down," she explains, "but it is the hospital where the worse horrors are. They carve pieces from those girls... and terminate the women who would work alongside them. Be cautious of the long, spindly doctors... these Shadows are more difficult to kill than the others. Though," she adds, "they all may be killed."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
That's fine. Kazusa can save her drinks for herself.
"I don't know the Atelier was a hospital," Kazusa says with an exasperated sigh. "But fine, whatever. Middle school--seriously?" She frowns as she hears the name Mikage-Cho. "Wasn't there that... that earthquake, right? Something about a chemical accident?"
She does lean in to look at the map. "... You're from the area? When did you move to Tokyo?" That question, at least, is a little less accusatory. "Hang on." Kazusa goes to pick up her phone from her desk (and locks the computer screen) before coming back to take a picture, for reference.
"Spindly doctors... must be the Melancs... Well, assuming the layout doesn't change... this... could be helpful." She's a little surprised to be saying that.
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"It was a gas leak," Isabeau explains, curt. "I never will understand you people and your obsession with gas heating. How many will die before you will embrace modernity?"
(She's referring to the fact that Japanese homes have no central heating, which means that space heaters are a universal constant -- and kerosene is a popular power choice for them. Kazusa probably has one running right now.)
"Bah... anyway, I moved to Tokyo only last year," she says, shaking her head, fingers drumming on her broad arms. "When I found my father, you see. Unfortunately, my reputation followed me... it is no matter. Let them think witchcraft if they will."
She shrugs a shoulder, as she adds: "Melanc, Sanguine, it matters not to me. A monster is a monster. Kanae-san still is blinded, though... take care with her. She is too attached to the ones which do not fight back."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
The apartment is an old concrete building. It is not the best insulated place, no. At 'you people' Kazusa rolls her eyes. "My space heater isn't going to cause any issues in a concrete building, hello."
Last year. And her reputation followed her. "... right." Kazusa knows a thing or two about reputations... and how quickly they can sour.
Kazusa arches an eyebrow. "Oh, so you're flat out admitting you don't study your prey, then? Not exactly what I expected from a 'hunter'. You know they all have different roles in the Atelier or... whatever. Do you seriously just go through places like that and kill everything that crosses your path?"
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
Isabeau does not bother arguing with Kazusa over the perils of gas in a concrete building, save a withering look.
As for her reputation... it was never sweet to begin with.
"Do not insult me," she snaps, instead, despite the fact that she just insulted Kazusa's whole country. "I am aware of the delineations. I simply do not regard them with merit. A Shadow is a beast which was always meant to be subconscious -- unseen. Where they are viewed and spoken with, they are abominations, risen to harm the host with secrets never meant for human view."
She pauses, and unfolds a hand, gesturing to Kazusa: "I ask you: why does Nagisa-san's Atelier feature these misogynistic visions? An 'Atelier' is an expression of the human mind... it is from him these doctors and their vivisections came from, not the Homunculus who invaded him. No?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa's was never sweet, either. But it did offer a type of protection. A lot less so, now, though.
"Oh, my mistake. You know the differences and then just choose to ignore them. Sounds like reaaaal smart hunting there," Kazusa says with a scoff. "Yeah, and what do you think we're doing when we go into someone else's Atelier, huh? The whole place is like, tied to the person's subconscious, or... however it works. But you don't go burning the whole place down, do you?"
Beat. Kazusa narrows her eyes. "... You don't do that, right?"
"His mind or his Atelier or whatever makes all the Humor Shadows. But the Homunculus takes control of the... Melancs, so they can go attack other shadows. Given how the Homunculus operates, I'm inclined to blame him, not Nagisa-san."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Your childish sarcasm does not paint you as experienced as you believe," Isabeau scowls, with Kazusa under her skin more than she'd admit. "The subconscious we see when we attend these places -- Atelier, Palace, Foraine -- in all cases, we should not see them. It is not normal to walk in these places."
She goes on: "You must use force to put down what threatens to consume a person's soul, or the poison will slowly consume them. I regret that I have not yet been able to locate the person who that wretched pig came from, let alone that peacock... I am sure they wither and die as those things enforce existence on creation."
Isabeau gestures, again. "Melanc, Melanc, Melanc. Let us put the orderlies and doctors aside! The girls -- the girls, made for the surgery table, designed to suffer. The nurses, twisted into base feminine subjugation, bent and bowing to her betters. You will explain this in your philosophy."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa is trying to be a better person. But she's not perfect yet. And Isabeau, well... "You're right. What do I know? I'm honestly amazed you didn't just run into the Atelier by yourself." Little does she know.
"You know not everything in the Atelier is harming the person, right? They're just--part of how the place works." Beat. "I think, anyway. Roger-san explained it all but I still doesn't at my best back then." Maybe she should ask for a refresher.
... Maybe she should stop avoiding him.
"What would you even do if you found out who they came from? You can't get back in if there's no Homunculus."
The nurses. "I don't-- how am I supposed to know! I haven't seen them yet. Maybe the other Humors are just--forcing them to obey, or something, I don't know. It's not like I've been in any Ateliers yet besides my own."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"I would, as I have," Isabeau answers, plainly. "I conquered yours alone... but I did not like to see Kanae-san approach this on her own."
Translation: Kanae insisted on coming with her this time.
"The harm is done in the viewing itself," Isabeau says, again, her patience wearing thin. "As you say, with no invader, there is no entry. There should be no entry to that place."
But Kazusa sounds frustrated, and Isabeau scowls. "You are supposed to know by listening to those with more experience," she bristles, "as I have tried to do, to come here and prepare you. If all you wish to do is to tell me how little I know, there is no more for me to do in this place. I wish you luck as you go forward in your optimism, gently urging him to death in your hunger to befriend the parts of him no woman was meant to touch."
With this, Isabeau turns, to stalk towards the door.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Another arched eyebrow. "You did. Why does that not surprise me. At least Kanae-chan has some sense."
"I'll probably be happy to never set foot in that place as soon as we get that Homunculus out of there." Does that mean they actually agree on that point?
"Your version of experience is to just, indiscriminately attack everything in sight just because you think it's a threat, whether it is or not. Do you really want me to go through a creepy hospital and waste all my energy on everything that crosses my path?"
'The parts of him no woman was meant to touch.' "Ew. Why did you have to-- t-to phrase it like that!"
Kazusa presses her palm to her forehead to forestall another headache and then calls out, "WAit, wait. Dammit. Look-- Thank you for bringing the information, okay? You don't-- you don't have to go."
<Pose Tracker> Isabeau Fontaine has posed.
"Hmph," Isabeau scowls, when Kazusa insults her capacity yet again. How many countless times, in this very conversation...
"As you should not. ... yes, it is better to meet these things with force, to press them back into the shadows from they come."
She stumbles over the viewing, insists Isabeau does not have to go, and Isabeau looks over her shoulder, her expression harsh.
"I do, in fact. You have made it abundantly clear you wish to speak to anyone else. Someone 'with some sense', was it? I am do 'reaaaal smart hunting,'" she mockingly echoes Kazusa's own sarcasm, "and I do not understand that your building with concrete would not have problems with gas leaks, hello! What was it you said, I flat out admit I do not study my prey? Or that I was surely followed, and would alert the Homunculus to your foxhole?"
The door opens, as she issues, sharply: "Good DAY, Motojima."
Slam!
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa just stares as Isabeau leaves. There's not even really anything she can say. She did just say all of that stuff--some of it, she hadn't meant as an insult, it had just been a panicked reaction.
... but some of it she had.
"I--"
Slam!
She slumps against the counter of the kitchenette, then her whole body sags. Her arms come up to hug herself, before she stares at the ground with a complicated mixture of emotions. "... Ugh. Why did I do that?" She really didn't want to be alone right now.
So much for trying to be a better person.