2026-10-25: Fox and Wolf
- Log: Fox and Wolf
- Cast: Coin, Kazusa Motojima
- Where: Mementos - Path of Aiyatsbus
- OOC Date: October 25, 2026
- IC Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2013
- Summary: Two Persona Users run into each other at one of the rest stops in Mementos. They talk about cognitive forms, spaces both supernatural and not, Hunting, and in the end an invitation to try something new is made.
(|======================= Mementos - Path of Aiyatsbus =======================|)
-====================================================== Tokyo/Shibuya Ward ====-
The tracks continue, and the station platforms look like they did at the top of
Qimranut, but this time everything is a dark, vivid blue. Splashes of red,
disturbingly blood-like, mark the floor and walls every so often.
Here and deeper, one might find and collect strange orbs of golden light marked
with flowers. However, you can't take them with you; once you leave Mementos,
they'll vanish. The robot-like boy Jose in his blue car drives around here and
lower too, and if you're lucky, you might run into him in a corner set up with
stars and drapes. There, you can trade those 'flowers' to him for goods and
services.
Since he's a little kid, he might want to play games with you too--innocent and
harmless ones, to be clear. Play those games with him, and you might start to
find clockwork posts sporting a great big star at some platforms. Pulling the
lever there will trade the bright star for a dim moon. Pull enough, and he'll
offer you a fun prize for that too.
Every so often, you can find a covered bench where you can wait for the trains
that run deeper into Mementos... though you'll have to hoof it first to anywhere
you want to go. At the bottom of Aiyatsbus is another platform where trains zoom
past on each side, and a wall that opened up to escalators heading deeper and
deeper within.
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Mementos is a dangerous place as you get further down in it.
Aiyatsbus isn't all that deep, by Mementos standards, but it's still more than the shallows of Qimranut. These floors are blue, but still similar to higher up, though with occasional worrying splashes of red. Though like anywhere in supernatural space it can be dangerous, for an experienced Persona-user, it's not too bad to come this far down even alone - though going much deeper would be dangerous solo without a plan.
Partway through Aiyatsbus is a floor free of aggressive Shadows, with a bunch of seats in a covered stop like a bus stop. It's a place to wait for a train to take you deeper, if that's where you're going - the trains stop here if someone's waiting - or to take a few minutes to recover before heading back up; there's never any Shadows hanging around the rest stop so it's a safe place to hang out for a little while.
Well, there's never any Shadows hanging around it... until now.
There's kind of a menacing sound as one approaches the rest stop; a metallic scrape and rasp, then a pause, then another. It sounds dangerous, but if one looks...
...there's someone sitting on *top* of the rest stop, with her little legs hanging over the side, swinging lazily. Coin is taking the opportunity to, apparently, sharpen her sword. It is a lot less scary of a sound when it's being obviously caused by a two-and-a-half foot vulpine humanoid who is, as it turns out, humming while she does it, though it's lost in the noise of the sharpening stone.
She does stop, ear perked, once or twice, as she hears something in the distance. But then she goes back to work.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Mementos is, frankly, still weird to Kazusa. Even with a few months of experience and getting used to its denizens... it's still weird. But that's fine. She doesn't have to like or understand it on a conceptual level, just a practical one.
It's a place to practice with her Persona, for a start, and... well, it's a good place to earn a little bit of extra spending money that she doesn't have to account for with her father.
It's kind of the curse of having a CFO for a father. He understands numbers.
But she's pushed herself today, trying to work off some steam in a way that retail therapy doesn't quite help. So she still looks a little moody and a little tired as she steps into the rest area. She tenses when she hears that odd sound, but once she locks eyes on the Shadow, she relaxes again.
That's Kanae's friend... who helped out with the Homunculus.
She's in her own cognitive form as she approaches, an elegant ookamimimi princess with long blue hair and a starry cloak and a moonstone circlet.
... and something that looks like a coiled up bloody whip on her hip??? It really doesn't match the aesthetic.
Kazusa looks up, studying the fox for a moment. "... Coin-san, right?" she asks, still cautious.
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
The sharpening stops as Coin's ears perk. She hears footsteps approaching!
So when Kazusa finally gets within sight, Coin has hopped to her feet and is holding the sword in two hands, defensively across her body. Once she sees who it is, though...
"Ah! It's you, the wolf!" Coin lowers the blade, relaxing slightly, before placing it across her back with a quick movement. "Yes, yes, Coin! I remember you, from the Atelier," she says. "One moment - hup - "
Coin hops off the top of the rest station and lands on her feet lightly. She looks up (and up and up... she's short) at Kazusa as she walks around her, looking at her thoughtfully. Her eyes linger on ears, and tail, but also the starry cloak, which seems to catch her attention; her own ears are turned slightly outward with interest and a complete lack of fear.
"Hmm," she says, before darting forward - to catch the edge of Kazusa's cloak in one paw, rubbing it with the other! "What is *this* made of, I wonder?" she asks, as much to Kazusa as to herself.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa's step pauses when she notices Coin in that defensive posture, and she leans back, ahnd going to her whip. "I'm not a wolf!" she protests. "That's just... my costume."
God why does her True Self have to be so cringe.
But she stands up straighter (she's taller than Coin, but pretty average for a Japanese girl, at 5'2"), letting the cloak close in front of her. She watches Coin circle her; her own ears don't move, except maybe to bob a little with the movement of her head.
But she does take a step back when Coin suddenly starts forward. "H-hey! No grabbing!" She reaches out to yank her cloak out of Coin's hands. "Sheesh. Don't you have any manners?"
She does look at the cloak a moment later. "... and how should I know what the Cloak of Night is made of? It just kind of... appeared, when I Awakened."
Wait it has a name?
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Everybody is taller than Coin (possible exception: Mona, but they haven't met). She's used to it by now.
When Kazusa pulls her cloak back from her, Coin hops backwards as well as if she's expecting further response. None comes, so she relaxes, though she's still got those curious ears, and her tail is swooshing this way and that.
"I do! But I haven't seen very many humans - " Coin pauses, then corrects herself, "I haven't *spoken* to very many humans. And I've never seen anything like that before. The Cloak of Night? Interesting..." She considers that for a moment, pacing a circle around Kazusa again, though this time she keeps her hands to herself at least.
"Well!" she decides, coming around her front again. "Let's try that again. I am Coin!" She takes off her hat and does a rather overelaborate bow with it before plopping it back on her head. "And you are Kazusa Motojima." How did she know that??
(Kazusa gave her name at the Atelier. She just may not have remembered she gave her *full* name. But she did!)
"What are you doing down here?" she asks, a moment later, too curious to hide it.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa's version of average height also comes with a gymnast's build, though the cloak obscures that when it's closed. Still, she doesn't take ny further action when Coin leaps back.
Coin hasn't spoken to very many huamns before. "Clearly," she retorts, and then pauses. This is Kanae's friend. Be nice. Kazusa sighs. "Are... you a fox, like you appear to be, or... something different?" If Mona can look like some type of cat thing and still insist on being human...
"Well the whole outfit is just--part of what happened when I awakened, cloak included." Oh no she said the name and Coin repeated it. "... and please don't go spreading that around. It's not important."
She still keeps an eye on Coin. But whe Coin bows, after a moment, so does she. "... right." She'd never introduce herself without her full name. "... you're Kanae-chan's friend, right?"
She shrugs a little at the question. "... training. And trying to pick up a little spending money."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"I suppose I must be a fox," Coin says, though she sounds a little unsure about it. What is she, really...? It's not something she has a real answer for; everybody seems to have a different idea of it. "I'm a person, at least! I'm not going to chew your face like one of those Shadows. They don't come on this floor," she assures Kazusa.
(Kazusa already knew that.)
Don't go spreading it around? Coin perks again, but: "All right," she says, and drops the topic. For now, anyway. It will return when Kazusa least expects it, possibly.
As for being Kanae's friend, Coin draws herself up to her full height and puffs out her chest slightly. "I am!" she says, proudly. "She is the first human I spoke to, in the Dark Hour, and we're friends. As a fellow Hunter, of course I helped her with the Atelier - with the Homonculus," Coin explains. "And you did as well, or perhaps she helped you with it; I'm not sure who found it first."
A pause, then: "I understand needing spending money! That's where I get mine, too," she says, still proudly.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"You suppose?" Kazusa looks a little skeptical at that, but then nods. "... a person." She sighs. "Sure, why not." If Roger can be an Awakened Humor, then, why can't a fox be a person. It makes just as much sense as anything else.
"Right."
She will definitely never expect it coming up again. Which is a good reason to have it come up again.
"Oh, you're a Hunter too?" Well, foxes are predators, so that makes some sense, maybe?? Kazusa saw the Persona, in any case, so she has no reason to doubt that. "Right." But as for who helped who, Kazusa shrugs a little. "She ran into the Homunculus first, but... she distracted it while another group of us helped look for the Thread, so... I don't think either of us gets credit for discovering the Atelier 'first'."
Kazusa nods a little, and then pauses. "Wait--are there places that let foxes spend money?" She considers. "... I guess a vending machine wouldn't care..."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Coin apparently has decided Kazusa is perfectly safe, because she makes a come-here gesture as she enters the little safe room. She offers Kazusa a seat, and then hops up on the one across from the one she offered, though she stands on it instead of sitting - it puts their heads closer to level.
"I don't think you believe me," Coin says, slightly huffy. "But... I am." She's pretty sure she's not human, despite her fascination with them; she is from the cognitive realm, isn't she? It's certainly where she first remembers. But just because she's not *human* doesn't mean she's not a *person*...
...right?
"A Hunter, I mean," she corrects, patting the hilt of her sword. "You'll have to take my word for it, or come on a hunt, though I haven't seen any Quarry about..." Not yet, anyway, though surely there's one somewhere. Foraines don't just *stop*, do they? "Well, I'm glad it was dealt with, even with ... everything about it!" A lot of the fine details eluded Coin then; she lacked any context for them. She still does, to an extent.
As for spending money: "I did it at the konbini," Coin says, proud once again. "I bought nikuman. I wasn't expecting anyone to be out of a coffin inside, but there was! Also, Trish takes money," she adds, "but she charges an awful lot, even though I *know* her."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa does follow when Coin beckons, and she takes a seat on the bech, sitting primly upright with her legs crossed at the knee. "No, I believe you," she insists. "You can summon a Persona, so that counts for something, right?"
But it's about being a Hunter, not a Person? Kazusa frowns. "Again, you have a Persona, so... whatever you call yourself, as long as it gets the job done." But Quarries.. she hasn't encountered one, but... "I've heard about those. I'm sure if there were one around Kanae-chan would be working on it. And I'd be helping her. ... and I guess you, too, if you joined her."
The everything that was Shinichi's Homunculus. "... Yeah, that..." Kazusa grimaces. "I really hope the next one won't be like that." She also hopes the next one won't come for a while, forgetting for a moment that Yuuki has knowledge of one. "... mine wasn't at all like that..."
"Oh." Kazua blinks. "... there was someone working a konibi in the Dark Hour?" It's called a graveyard shift, Kazusa. 24/7 stores don't run themselves. "Ugh. Her. Yeah, I think she's just like that for everyone. We somehow managed to negotiate some coupons from her and they're prety stingy."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Well, obviously I would!" Coin is firm about that. "That kind of distortion - you can't just let it sit. It's dangerous, both for the person whose it is and for anyone who gets caught up in it..." Fox tails don't fluff out when they're agitated, but Coin's moves a lot more, sweeping back and forth with agitation rather than amusement.
She tilts her head and considers Kazusa for a moment when she says hers wasn't like that. "Hmm!" Coin does not seem inclined to explain herself beyond a piercing gaze for a few moments, and then a satisfied nod to herself as she comes to a conclusion.
"Well, obviously," Coin says. "I just expected them to be a coffin, but they weren't. Anyway, do you come down here often? I know you said you were looking for training, but I don't know what else you were looking for..."
A pause, just for a moment. "Trish's deals aren't very good," she agrees, surreptiously, like she's letting Kazusa in on a secret. "I trade her things sometimes, because I owe her, but... yeah."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"Right, right... I'm not going to leave someone trapped in something like that either, trust me." Not after her own experience.
She does draw back a little at that intense look from Coin. "... wh-what's that look for? It's not polite to stare, you know."
"When I can. For the psending money too, remember?" The thing htye were just talking about. "... and maybe to blow off a little steam," she admits quietly.
"Yeah, I kiiind of got that impression. I did get some new Skill Cards out of it, at least, so I guess it wasn't a total waste." She studies Coin for a moment. "You owe her money? Good luck with that."
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Everybody stares at *me*," Coin says, defensively. Which probably isn't even wrong. "I was figuring something out. You..." She isn't sure how to put it; she cocks her head to one side thoughtfully. "You've got a feeling about you, you know. Like you're pulled two ways." That's resonance she feels; Coin is more alert, and more perceptive, than some people give her credit for.
She adds, "And I wasn't staring that much! But I do have a question. Why do YOU have a tail? I have a tail because I'm supposed to," and she reaches behind her and runs one paw through the fluff before letting go, "but I've never seen a human with one before!"
Coin you can't just ask why someone has a tail.
"And I don't owe her *money*, but - look, it's complicated!" Coin huffs. "She's the first person I ever talked to, that's all. So she pointed me the right way. I wouldn't have known how to get anywhere without her - well, I guess I might have, but it would have taken longer! Anyway, I just bring her things sometimes she can't get herself, when I need to. I can get around, after all! A proper explorer of the physical realm!"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"I--" Well, it's not like she hasn't been looking at Coin. Kazusa huffs and rolls her eyes. "... fine, whatever." That's Tsundere for 'You hve expressed a salient point that I have no reasonable counterargument for.'
But she does blink a little, as Coin continues. "A... a feeling...?" She frowns, and then looks down a little, as Coin explains. Pulled two ways... "... yeah. I guess I am." It's even evident in the manifestation of her Persona--the half-vampire/half-human Mina Harker.
But tails! Don't ask what she did with the tail or the cloak when she sat down--the camera cut away from her starting to lower herself to just being sitting. It's fine. "I..." She crosses her arms and looks away. "It's just... I don't know. I only have it when I'm in this form. It's just like, part of my costume, I guess? Like a cosplay thing?"
That answer doesn't feel entirely satifying to her, though. "Well, the Humors in my Atelier were all like, wolgirls, and catboys and girls, and wolfgirls, uh... I'm an artist? Maybe that has something to do with it?"
Oh, it's not money. "Oh. Then you're probably way better off if you don't owe her money." She frowns a little at that. "You can get into the physical realm?" She looks at Coin uncertainly. "Are... you a fox there, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
The answer doesn't really satisfy Coin either, but she seems aware that she's not going to get a better one - whether it's because Kazusa doesn't know, or Kazusa simply won't tell her, doesn't ultimately matter. "Maybe," she says, though she is of course going to ask again, later, because she's curious and she simply isn't going to DROP something. Oh, no. Kazusa has done the most dangerous thing of all:
She made herself seem interesting to Coin.
Which is why Coin is now leaning forward slightly as Kazusa speaks to listen in. At the question, though... "Nope!" Coin shakes her head. "I thought I couldn't leave at all for a time, except during the Dark Hour, but it turns out I was *quite* wrong about that."
"No, I look like a human," Coin says, which makes her more like Roger than Pernelle. Apparently. Is this a sliding spectrum of nonhumans? "It took some getting used to! But behold! Fingers!" She wiggles her... paw. "...well, I have longer fingers there," she clarifies.
"I stay with Kanae sometimes. She says I'm cute." Coin...
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Oh no, a most perilous predicament.
Kanae why didn't you wan her about the danger???
"If it helps, I think anybody that Awakens in an Atelier gets a form like this," Kazusa offers. "... at least, a far as I'm aware." After a moment she adds, "N-not the--not this form, but, something for when they enter a supernatural space."
The fine print is that she means anyone who has a Transmutation Awakening, and of course, there are others who have their own variety of cognitive outfit, too. But she's trying!
She does lean back just a little as Coin leans in. "I see." Wrong about entering the physical world... and... a human form! "Oh, I see." She is, in fact, thinking of Roger. She nods a little. "Good." That makes what she has in mind easier to do.
She stays with Kanae sometimes, and-- "Wh-what? She does?" Why does she suddenly feel so irritated hearing that? She huffs and looks away, but is trying to sound sincere. "Uh, good for you, I guess. A-anyway... uh... do you happen to know if you like hot springs?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"Hm~m!" Coin saw Shinichi Awaken, of course, so this isn't entirely unknown, but Kazusa is telling her more than she ever got out of him. (It's not like she could ask HIM questions.) "I suppose that makes sense," she decides after a few long moments, though this may be one of the things that only makes sense to Coin.
When Kazusa leans further back, Coin leans further in. She leans so far further in that she ends up unbalancing herself and dropping off the seat she was standing on, so she ends up hopping off, looking up at Kazusa with a big grin on her face.
"I have no idea!" she says, delighted. "But I want to see one. Do you know where one is? I want to try all sorts of things!" Coin's eyes glimmer, intense, as she spreads her arms and swirls once, her coat billowing out around her.
"Are you, perhaps, *telling* me where one might be found?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa's got no reason to hide that information, so she doesn't mind sharing it. "Though I gues I've seen other people with outfits in supernatural spaces..." Like Kanae-chan! "But not all of them?"
She gives Coin a strange look as she basically falls off her seat. But at least this time she doesn't say anything. (See? She really is trying. Kanae you'd better appreciate the effort she's putting in.)
... And she doesnt know. "Of course not." She stares at Coin for a long moment, and then sighs as she makes her decision, already certain she's going to regret it in some fashion.
"Not quite. There's a holiday coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm inviting some people on a trip to a place where there's a lot of hot springs, and since you're a friend of Kanae-chan's, and you helped out with the Homunculus... would you like to come along?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
Coin's eyes widen even further as Kazusa makes an offer that she can't refuse.
(Well, she could. But she's not going to.)
"Yes, I do!" Coin practically bounces with excitement. "Thank you very much! I've never been invited on something like this before... is Kanae going too? Do I need to do anything? How do I get there...?" She's going to be going on in this vein for a while unless Kazusa stops her.
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazusa does manage a small smile at the gratitude. "You're welcome." She nods. "Of course--she was the first person I invited. And you should--" Kazusa pauses, looking Coin up and down. "... I guess you don't have bags to pack..." she says with a small frown. "Uh... maybe we should take you shopping for some extra changes of clothes, or... see if you can borrow any of ours."
She doesn't even know what Coin's physical appearance looks like yet. Presumably, it's a little bit taller than her current appearance, if it's supposed to be human.
"We're taking a train. We can meet up at the train station and go together. There'll be some Unawakened people on the trip, too, so... no talking about supernatural stuff in front of them. Can you handle that?"
<Pose Tracker> Coin has posed.
"I wouldn't mind going shopping! But I have some clothes," Coin assures Kazusa, which is probably at least *slightly* reassuring in that it *probably* means she's not going to show up in a Hunter outfit for the train.
Hopefully she leaves the sword at home, though.
No talking about supernatural stuff in front of them... Coin sometimes forgets exactly what is supernatural and what isn't, but... "I can handle it!" she assures Kazusa.
Taking half a step away, she sweeps into another bow like the first she gave. "Thank you for this opportunity. I won't waste it!"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
There are clothes already. "Oh, good. Well, we have time to work out the details, then." Almost two weeks, which is plenty of time.
That sword had better not show up.
"Good." She can only take Coin at her word, after all.
Kazusa nods and stands up. "You're welcome. I'd better get going, though. Do you have a way to get in touch with you?" Turns out, for now it's 'telling Kanae.' "... alright. Then, I'll see you later."
And with that she'll head for the exit.