2026-09-29: Kindled Spirits
- Log: 2026-09-29 Kindled Spirits
- Cast: Shinichi Nagisa, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: Shinichi Nagisa's Atelier (Cinvat Mikage-cho)
- OOC Date: September 30, 2026
- IC Date: January 17, 2013
- Summary: The Homunculus that would be Shinichi Nagisa and Yanagi Nagisa have a talk.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The hospital rooftop gives one a view of all of Mikage-Cho. At least, such as it might be rendered by Shinichi Nagisa's mind, and influenced by the Homunculus possessing him.
One has trouble seeing with the naked eye, however, due to the perpetual fog that seems to go at least a few stories up.
But the eye is not the only way by which one might see.
A Helipad with a standardized 'H' known all the world over is present up there. Along with crimson, blinking warning lights to guide non-existent aircraft in. In that sense at least, it is normal. But only in that sense.
If one looks closely at the 'H' it'll be seen that it is numerous flower petals, rustling in the wind, before resettling back in that shape.
A jagged scar rests across the center of the roof, giving a view- and perilous drop into the floor below, a crisscross of bent rebar like staples across a surgical wound. The Red Light blinking atop the hospital floods into the floor below.
Every so often below, the sounds of Humours at work below or in the distance punctuate what is otherwise silence.
There's no indication of footsteps up the stairs when the new master of this place arrives, merely a feeling that he is here to that resonance- and a sound within her mind, that has an acrid smell, sensory wise.
As someone who once spent the majority of her short life here- waiting to die- how do you like what I've done with the place?
All those creatures who were made here to be what your kid brother denies in himself- freed from their isolation. Free to lash out at those who do not understand the torment it is- to be talked down to. To be confined and condescended- while their lives are in control of others who claim to know what's best for them.
It's strange that he feels like he can claim to know what the experience is like- but almost certainly, he doesn't. It's the hindsight of her own brother, gauging how it must have felt for Yanagi in retrospect- whether true, or untrue.
You never left a review online- so I suppose I have to hear it straight from the source.
He noticed her reaction the first time she was brought here, so of course this is him being purposefully cruel. Probing that usually calm facade, to try and nudge her, to see if he can figure out where her head is actually at.
Because he lost control here- and he wants it back so badly.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
The gloomy gray of Cinvat Mikage-cho contrasts against the bright and brilliant sunset colors of Yanagi's Transmutated form. However, she is not a sun herself, and she's not able to burn through the fog--even if her Navigator senses see through it as clearly as if it weren't there. Behind her, Giselle pirouettes on and on, and little origami spirits, shaped like Christmas angel ornaments, fade and out of existence, bringing Yanagi the information they've scouted out from the Atelier, both inside the hospital and out. She views their uncrumpling and re-crumpling animation paper forms with eyes closed, hands folded over the head of her cane.
She stands at the epicenter of the H, where the flower petals flutter the hardest. When a certain presence draws nearer, she doesn't react. She already knew it was there--and so too is she used to its voiceless communication.
"Hmm... Is that what this is supposed to be?" she muses. She's well aware of what's going on with the Sanguins and the Melancs. To her, that rather seems like the opposite of what the Homunculus is trying to claim. If anything, it's more like her experience at Blacksite Revelations--including the part where she has to watch it all happen to others.
"It's sad," she adds all the same. She means it, too, for all that it's a glib answer. However this Atelier took form before the Homunculus's instarration, Shinichi is so obsessed with her. She genuinely feels terrible for him. If she actually had died back then, he'd simply continue on with this pathetic half-life, chasing after ghosts in the desperate hope of absolution through self-flagellation.
"What do you think about it?" she wonders then, opening her eyes to look over at the Homunculus. "This is the person you would become, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The Homunculus doesn't answer her on 'Is that what this is supposed to be?' because once again, she has him on the back foot. Maybe especially so, when the feet he wears aren't even his- not yet.
Instead, he manifests more visibly, to show he's unthreatened. It looks like Shinichi, in a dirty old coat. A ballcap, with a hood over it.
In essence, his appearance is the 'man you would not want to be alone with in an alley.' Hands in his pockets, one gets the impression he's concealing so many ways to commit violence.
There's a snort at her answer that 'It's sad,' but he doesn't reply otherwise, again. Because even a Homunculus can think something is sad.
It's just, he thinks this place, this interiority of his host is the version of sad which means 'pathetic'- emasculating- self-flagellating indeed- everything he thinks he isn't.
I'm surprised you can even feel sadness- the things you say while smiling to a guy. Ice cold.
He's quiet though, as he considers what he thinks of it. What to say- then, eventually-
I hate it. In this current state- it's just a monument to wallowing in self-loathing. Once I'm fully in control, there's going to be a lot of changes around here.
What changes though? What will this place become? What kind of person does he want to be?
His face, he tries to make inscrutable, but in truth he's a bit troubled. Why can't he think of what to create? Only- what to destroy?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi wasn't even trying to get it on the back foot then; she simply said what she thought.
Then again, that's how she tends to get most people on the back foot, isn't it?
She's unfazed as he appears. He's already attempted violence on her, and they both know how that turned out. For sure, it's more the feeling of him than the look of him that's off-putting, anyway--even if her Navigator powers are vision-based.
It calls her ice cold, and she smiles at that too, eyes squinting shut as she tilts her head. "Why, thank you," she chirps. She knows perfectly well it wasn't meant as a compliment, but the fact that the monster is saying this to her means that he finds her unnerving. That is a compliment when you deal professionally with Homunculi.
That smile fades, at least, as it replies. She gazes out at the foggy city, so like and unlike her hometown. Over there are the treetops of the park where they used to play, over there are the scraggly branch tips of an Agastya tree... It's a place that chains one to the past.
"Hmm... So we agree," she muses.
She, too, hates that it's just a monument to wallowing in self-loathing. She doesn't want that for him. She doesn't want to be that for him.
It might make its face inscrutable; however, Yanagi is someone who has learned to be fearless, and that includes asking socially awkward questions. Part of the reason for this whole arrangement is to better learn how Homunculi think, where they're from and how they operate, so she naturally wonders, "What sort of changes will you make?"
She genuinely hasn't yet noticed that it's even a little troubled. Maybe she will in a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
That's exactly it. Just how unexpectedly inhuman she is to something else that is inhuman. How he dominates and aggresses on other people depends entirely upon his idea that he knows how humans think from his own human most.
He never expects what comes out of Yanagi's mouth.
'Why, thank you.'
His lip curls in disgust at his own inability to get any reaction out of this one. Ordinarily he'd lash out, and lash out again-
-but she has abilities he feels he needs. There have been numerous people in this place as of late.
Far too many for his liking. No amount of threat had managed to deter them.
'Hmm... so we agree.'
A nod, though he's uncertain about how much we agree.
'What sort of changes will you make?'
He doesn't answer at first, his expression unchanging, then there's a little movement. A shuffle of his hands in pockets.
A nervous gesture.
I'm tearing down this place- first of all.
He seems to decide, on a whim. This hospital first. Then everything else. A human should not be so caged in by their past.
Humans are supposed to focus on the present. The future. This life- this body. It's squandered on-
The thought stops- like he's about to phrase it a certain way, and realizing it's all wrong.
-on him.
If he had let that 'on me' go- then he would only embarrass himself.
Another pause- many long seconds, then he eventually asks- trying to seem casual.
What changes did you make?
He means- after her Homunculus was killed, but his mind once again seems to conflate the two. The human is homunculus. The homunculus is human.
What an odd juxtaposition of thought processes, as he grows closer and closer to his birth- that erratic latching on to an identity that isn't his.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi sees the Homunculus's curling lips and giggles. It hasn't been fully unable to get any reaction out of her, but her survival strategy when she was an experiment was to shut down emotionally. She's gotten very good at simply turning it off when faced with horrors.
Tragedies, now... that's different. But the Homunculus probably wouldn't appreciate that, given its focus on the hypermasculine.
Besides which, it's true there've been a lot of intruders--and Yanagi's getting something out of this too, isn't she? That's why they're cooperating.
No doubt it can deal with her in a more permanent way once it--he--is finally Shinichi Nagisa.
Yanagi waits as the Homunculus considers its answer. Its stillness puts what little motion it does make stand out, and she glances down at its pockets. Hmm.
She nods slowly when it gives its first thoughts. "You have some strong thoughts on what humans should be like," she observes. It's neutral, genuinely, neither praise nor condemnation. Simply a curiosity that she's noticed over their interactions.
But then it asks her about her changes, and she blinks, confused. "Changes?" It would mean to her Atelier, right? But she's not a Homunculus. Or does it mean after she Transmuted? She tilts her head the other way, considering this. "Hmmm... I think it's more of a funhouse, now."
She did see the eerie, desolate haunted house it once was. She hasn't had cause to look into her own Atelier again, though Pernelle theoretically could let her do so, but if she compares herself now to the way she was back then, that'd be her best guess.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
Even the Homunculus blinks like an animal that got surprised by the giggle. If Shinichi were conscious- he'd wonder how his sister became like this.
Since he's not, it's the Homunculus wondering it, this Yanagi just does not line up to the one in the memories of her he now has.
Certainly he can- but that's an afterthought. In reality, he can break her in half with almost no effort. But it's not her lack of ability to fight back in that realm that bothers him.
It's the fact she always knows what buttons to press to make him stand down, to make him anxious- apprehensive.
So when she notes he has strong feelings on how humans should be.
Why shouldn't I? I'm about to become one. You live for too short a time to focus on bullshit like your feelings about the past. You should live for only one person- yourself. When you breed, it should only- to be to leave some part of yourself in this world- then you die. Simple as that. Nothing else matters- nothing else should matter.
'Hmmm... I think it's more of a funhouse, now.'
... Fitting.
He admits, even if he seems to do so only begrudgingly.
Even your sense of self agrees with me. To live only for self-gratification now and going forward is the only way a human should live.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi continues to be pleased that she's unnerving the Homunculus. She isn't fixated on power in the same way it is, but there's still a rush in feeling like you're the one in control, isn't there?
It's probably for the best that Shinichi isn't in a position to wonder that, though. Suffice to say that she's had a lot of bad influences over the past few years.
The answer gets a slow, thoughtful nod. He's about to become one, so of course he has strong opinions. "I suppose you don't infect an Atelier if you don't have strong opinions on humanity," she muses. She tilts her head. "...Do you? Does anyone ever infect an Atelier by accident?"
She at least is being somewhat more gracious than usual by not saying 'your kind' or the H-word. They are allies right now, after all. He's doing something for her, and she's doing something for him.
She can't say she's thrilled to hear that its thoughts on the past are much like her own, though. Not just for her own sake, either. Yanagi thinks the way she does now because she was told for years she'd never make it to adulthood, and then one day she finally did, and it snapped all her reservations about living freely like brittle winter twigs. She's still going to die young, but now--what's there left to hold back for? The fact that the Homunculus thinks the same way...
"We are surprisingly similar," she agrees. "So I wonder, what sort of future do you imagine for yourself?"
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
The Homunculus at least would certainly agree. Even the act of committing violence, is the act of asserting control- over life, death. If they live, they now know of how weak they are in comparison. If they die- well, it proves that you were always the one in control of their fate.
The question though causes an odd moment, where his head just tilts fractionally, twisting his periphery to regard her as if she'd asked a strange question.
Then he seems to furrow his brow and think about it.
Perhaps. You feel... a draw, towards a host that is weak of will, wounded- in crisis from- elsewhere. Our 'before'. There is a sort of preference involved. But- I don't think it's entirely necessary.
He seems to contemplate this, as if to try to parse an inhuman experience of 'before' with the filter of human cognition.
I believe if one of us tried to infect someone that was not of that preference- they'd be less likely to grow to maturity- so to speak.
That is at least his instinct, on the matter. He can't say for certain.
The host would not suit. The process of taking over would be slower- and we would stand out all the more.
It's not unlike Yanagi in some ways. The before- given how badly they wish to infect. They might consider it no life at all. A state in which you wait to be born- like a creature in the earliest parts of its development.
I do not like to think of the 'before'.
What he is saying is that he can't truly remember it in a way that translates into human experiences. He feels it more as an animalistic instinct than what humans think of as 'Will'.
Though that's not to say no 'Will' was involved either...
Her question though, causes something of a smirk to appear on his features.
Well we are brother and sister. A shame you didn't succumb before- then we would be even more so.
What sort of future though?
He looks out over the edge of the hospital, then takes a few steps forward, exposing his back to her as he moves closer and closer to the edge.
To live.
To truly live.
To do what I want, when I want to, to whomever I want to.
It's a simplistic way of looking at things- but only the present.
The rest I'll- I'll know- once I truly live.
It's evasive, of course- to focus on his 'Present' rather than to admit he doesn't know what he wants his 'Future' to be.
He knows he wishes to choose something 'manly'- something that lets him dominant and control- but...
... what does that look like? What should it look like? A politician? A boxer? Some other kind of athlete? Or perhaps he could join some Yakuza family- but then, he wouldn't be at the top.
He doesn't know what a 'future' for him should look like. None whatsoever. He just has no vision for it.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
The Homunculus has told Yanagi before about what kind of humans draw a Homunculus' attention. This goes into more detail on it, though. A 'before.' Does a bird remember when it was in an egg? Does a baby remember when it's in the womb? Of course not. (Though apparently butterflies remember when they were in a chrysalis--but that's a metamorphosis, not a birth.) Maybe it's something like that...
She notes that 'I believe' and 'less likely.' It doesn't know for sure; this is a guess, to the best of its knowledge. It does make sense, though. Yanagi hums thoughtfully. "I wonder how many Homunculi die in the Cocoon because they infected an unsuitable host by accident."
She means that sincerely. She hadn't ever considered that one might try, by design or by mistake, to infect a mentally healthy human. What a fascinating and disturbing idea.
It doesn't like to think of the 'before.' "I imagine you wouldn't." It hadn't yet found a face to wear like a mask over its own--hadn't appropriated an identity to make its own. It must be hard to find a future when your entire sense of self hinges on someone else.
On someone you hold in contempt.
Yanagi gazes out towards the cityscape. She'd been out in that not too long ago--helped guide Yoko towards danger in the hopes she'd Awaken. (She'd been with Persona Users. She'd have been fine.) Her eyes narrow when the Homunculus calls them 'brother and sister,' but she doesn't say anything to disagree. Certainly it's right about if she'd succumbed to her own Homunculus. With a tup-tup-tup of her walking cane, she joins the Homunculus on the edge of the roof without so much as a glance towards its back.
It is a simplistic way of looking at things. It's not unlike Yanagi's own. She hears that hesitation too.
He doesn't know what his future will be like. He just wants to live first and foremost.
She shuts her eyes. She really does understand that painfully well. But she...
"I see," she says softly. "It is hard to know what life would look like before you've truly begun to live it."
A pause. Then she smiles over at 'him.' "Would you be interested in taking another trip to that cafe once you have, 'little brother'?"
It's not the offer it sounds like on its face.
<Pose Tracker> Shinichi Nagisa has posed.
Perhaps they were in a different form entirely once upon a time- and this is simply a new reflection of that form. There's so many possibilities on their 'before' that perhaps one stands to think that this isn't necessarily their entire 'after'.
As for the Homunculus- he doesn't seem to know for sure, a great many things about the nature of his own existence.
Perhaps clarity will come when he's truly won- though perhaps not as well.
I don't know.
He admits, on that one.
Not so many as humans that die before they are ever born.
A comparison born of insecurity, he has to remain 'superior' - because otherwise, he is merely a parasite.
Just like humans though, perhaps his memory of earlier times simply fades as a matter of growth- most humans do not remember anything of their earliest life, after all.
Theories upon theories upon theories. With little confirmation.
Where does he come from-?
Heh. That's something you can really relate to, isn't it?
Borrowed empathy, not even his. Formed with how Shinichi himself might have parsed this idea.
Her next question though causes him to still- then turn around, staring her in the eye with a flat expression.
I'd rather burn it down- then go back with you.
He remembers how uncomfortable he was there, how small he felt under her gaze.
After we're done with these Hunters- it'd be best if we're never seen together again.
Then as a stab of cruelty, he adds.
People might talk. People might see. You wouldn't want to break Mommy and Daddy's heart all over again- now would you?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
A comparison born of insecurity--which means it probably isn't helped when Yanagi muses, "Because there's so many more of us, I suppose."
The question about the cafe wasn't made as a genuine offer, so it doesn't bother Yanagi terribly much that he shoots her down with an anti-aircraft turret. It does make her smile fade, though. "True," she says of them never being seen together--
And she stills when he brings up her parents.
"True," she repeats, a little more quietly this time.
In that cruelty, though, there's ironically some mercy. If Yanagi had started to make a real connection with an unreal being, what would that mean for Shinichi himself?
"As you wish, then," she decides, and retreats a short distance to resume scanning the Atelier. She'll leave shortly to handle a certain group of Persona Users--and bear delighted witness to an Awakening.
Even then, though, at the corner of a window to a red-lit room, a single origami spirit hovers.