personavelvetroomdr | (no subject)

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[It's a perfectly ordinary day in Tokyo, if you ignore the fact that Akechi just got done enduring a horrific, white palace with crumbling architecture, creepy tentacles everywhere, and scraps of memory locked away and scattered like puzzle pieces, culminating in battling a tentacled abomination to free Wakaba Isshiki's Shadow from the prison of her mind, and... well. A mother-daughter reunion is always nice, he supposes.

He's on the phone when he stumbles in, deep in the midst of a conversation.]

Isshiki-san's condition is stable, but we'll have to relocate her before he notices anything amiss. ...Yes, Dad, I'm all right. Not that I don't appreciate the concern, but-

[The signal cuts out, and... ah. The Velvet Room. And not the Velvet Room of his childhood, but... this one.

At first he bristles, eyes narrowed into a razor-sharp glare. He has half a mind to complain to Igor about locking him out, but all signs point to Ren's "Igor" being impostor, and... no. Wait.

Recollection flashes before him. With that recollection, he grimaces.]

...Of course I'd end up back here.

[He shuts his eyes, brings a hand to his face, and breathes in deeply. He was such a stupid tween, and if people connect him to said tween... Who even knows how much time has passed here?]

[ooc: Older version of

fogboundcrow for the funny. Some info on his profile. Yes, he's wearing a Shujin uniform.]

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[ Ren wrinkles his nose. ] Even if he's not doing any brainwashing, he still sounds shady as fuck, dude. Erasing all pain sounds like an anime villain motive.

Edited 2023-08-31 01:27 (UTC)

Oh, it does. It's just flat out unrealistic, and it feels as though he's letting his own personal feelings impede on his ability to do his job.

[Nonetheless, he does an irritated hand wave and blows a small puff of air.]

Yet his therapy seems to yield some modicum of results, as he came to Shujin with a "high recommendation." He's more pleasant than Kobayakawa or Kamoshida, but his naivety is nauseating.

[ Ren listens to him rant with a strange, wistful smile. ]

You sound like my world's Akechi when you're annoyed.

Ha. Do you want me to act annoyed more often, then?

[It's a light tease, but it might be... comforting? He's not sure. Either way, it's amusing.]

[ Ren huffs a laugh. ]

That'd be great. Take off the gloves, too, and cut your hair by about a centimeter. Appreciate it.

I'm afraid I'm rather attached to my current hair style, even if my Ren thinks it's "fluffy."

[He flexes his fingers, amused at the glove comment.]

And I think the black gloves compliment my uniform rather nicely.

My Akechi has the same hair. He just had a haircut a couple days before I got here, is all. [ Ren misses him all the time. But if anything, his Akechi is better off if Ren stays here. For a split second, his expression clouds over.

Then it passes. ] And the gloves aren't bad, they just make you look like a spy. You pull it off, though.

Well, a spy wouldn't be an inaccurate way to describe me, seeing how I am an undercover agent for a special, top secret organization.

[Despite the wryness to his smirk, his tone remains sincere, if a tad amused.]

[ ... Ren squints at him. ] That's a real generous way to describe the Phantom Thieves.

Ha. The Phantom Thieves are my extracurricular activity. I'm talking about my job.

[Not that the Phantom Thieves aren't a serious obligation, but oh. There's more to this Akechi than meets the eye.]

[ Ren's squint becomes squintier. ] ...You're serious.

[ What the fuck is Akechi talking about? ]

I met Mitsuru Kirijo when I was just shy of fourteen. One thing led to another, and... well.

[He shrugs as if this is the most mundane fact about his life.]

[ ... ]

Yeah, that checks out. The CEO of Kirijo Group has a top-secret spy network. [ His mouth pulls at one side, but he's not smiling. He knows people like that. He's worked for them, too, on Shido's orders. ]

Well, to be specific, the Shadow Operatives are tasked with Shadow-related and metacognitive phenomena, although recently...

[He digs his fingers into his scalp, sighing.]

Let's just say they've had to lie low. ...Lower than usual. I'm a high school student, so I'm able to investigate on their behalf without drawing too much attention.

[ Ren does not seem reassured. ] So basically, the head of a huge corporation has an entire team to meddle with Metaverse stuff.

[ That could get as bad as Shido. If this Akechi is working for her, is he okay...? ]

To prevent others from meddling as well. That was actually how we met Kirijo-san and her peers.

[This seems like a good time to take a quick sip of water.]

The Midnight Channel had returned for unknown reasons, this time advertising a fighting tournament of all things. Naturally, we went to investigate, only to find that this tournament was a front for something far more sinister, spanning back over a decade.

Edited 2023-09-01 20:06 (UTC)

[ Okay, Ren is at least somewhat distracted from his concern and his cynical little train of thought. ] What do you mean it came back? Did it leave? ...How many incidents did you deal with, anyway?

Edited 2023-09-01 20:19 (UTC)

Well, yes. When we defeated Izanami, the TV world became pristine and pure, and peace fell upon Inaba... for a little over a month.

[He chuckles wryly and shakes his head.]

Golden Week of 2012 was utterly insane. We discovered that sapient robots that can summon Personas exist, that someone had tried to hijack one such robot, and that the same person who did so tried to end the world the very next day by bathing Inaba in a strange red fog that merged the cognitive and real worlds, only to discover that he was but a puppet for another god-like entity.

[ What the fuck. ] The Metaverse stuff must seem tame to you.

One time, we had to defeat another deity by dancing. I shit you not.

[This is his serious face. His voice? Just as serious. This really is a thing that happened.]

[ He sits back in his seat, narrow-eyed. ] Now you're fucking with me.

It was a being summoned forth by the collective desire for shallow, safe bonds without pain, just as Hi-no-Kagutsuchi was drawn in by humanity's collective desire for isolation and solitude. Evidently, humanity likes to bring about these situations quite often.

[It's funny how it keeps happening. Absurdly frustrating, but funny.]

[ At some point you have to just let humanity suffer the consequences of its own bullshit, in Ren's opinion. But more importantly: ] What does that have to do with dancing?

We got pulled into a parallel reality not unlike the TV world and the Metaverse where we were unable to fight and instead had to use the power of song and dance to free Shadows that were being brainwashed to bond with the aforementioned deity.

[He takes another sip.]

Really, it's not all that odd after the fighting tournaments. In the second one, we faced Shadows that resembled our friends and comrades and could somehow use Personas.

... Shadows can't use Personas.

[ Yep, that's all he has to say. He's staring at Akechi like he's worried about Akechi's sanity. Or maybe just worried about the state of reality... That's been true for a while, but he had no idea how serious the problems were. ]