(no subject)

[paysforall]

1. What's without

[To long time residents of this closet of a dimension, the figure leaning against the base of HachikoBuchiko's plinth is a familiar sight. The Goro Akechi, Age 21 who is there is dressed in mostly the same fashion as the last time anyone saw him - it's a different pair of black skinny jeans (these ones have a silver chain with skull charms hanging from the left hip to the knee, with just enough give to swing as he walks) and a different too-fancy shirt, but how many Akechis are there, even, who would even consider dressing like that? The only spot of color, aside from his hair and eyes (have they always been that red) is that the gloves he wears are bright red on the inside, palms and fingers. A memory he doesn't want to lose.

He's playing games on his phone with half-attention as he people-watches, which in this place is more an act of looking for people to watch. In the sea of cognitions, real people stick out like a sore thumb - and he's probably spotted you in the crowd before you even approach, with a faint smile or frown on his face, depending on who you are.

And if you're more than just a familiar face - someone who he actually met, the last time he was here - he'll actually stop leaning against the statue's base to give you a proper wave. It's been a while, Velvet Room Dimension, but your Reaper has returned.]

2. What's within

[And no trip through the old stoimping grounds is complete without a trip to Mementos, directly through Shibuya Station.

He doesn't wear a mask - indeed, even as a former Phantom Thief, his clothes don't change. But unlike on the normal, uncognitive side of the world, his wings are fully visible, moving like a natural extension of his body. And in place of the chain dangling from his jeans is a holstered pistol - neither the toy laser gun nor the real one he used as Shido's weapon, but at least at a glance, it seems real enough.

Akechi lurks for a while at the entrance of Mementos, sitting quite illegally on one of the turnstiles just because he can, perched like a particularly strange bird, one knee tented up against his torso and the other dangling as he watches in the direction of the depths. Eventually, he slides off his seat and deeper into the depths.

In Mementos proper, he spends a bit of time getting a work-out - that gun is in hand, though what it fires can only be loosely called bullets. Fireballs, lightning bolts, shards of ice, and of course laser beams once more - he uses all of these in various combinations, rather than summoning a Persona for combat. Combined with the fact that he's clearly much faster than most of the Shadows, it's usually a quick clean-up if anything tries to bother him.]

Comments

So two birds walk into a subway

[herewardbound]

Bluntly: he had been stressed the fuck out.

Way too much had been going on, and he needed to do. Something. Futaba was fine for a few hours. The naval coat and mask settled onto him as familiar, comforting weights, and a brief check over himself showed that yes, everything was where it was supposed to be.

"Fucking hate these tunnels," he muttered, before proceeding. Mementos was so much more stifling than the skyscrapers of Pride or Greed had been, and even Wrath was so wide-open that he could at least breathe, or feel wind on his face. Mementos was nothing like any of them. It was an endless labyrinth of constantly-sifting tunnels, and the wind was often hot and humid and rank- like the breath of some predator.

Knowing what sat at the bottom, that wasn't even an inapt comparison.

Although...

Hm.

A proper Navigator he might not have been- but after enough time, you picked up a certain sensitivity to the atmosphere of the cognitive world that could serve something like it in a pinch. And, when he was alone... Something down here that wasn't a Shadow. Nor a Cognition, but wasn't the tiny supernova he'd expect from a Persona. Which... meant he had no idea what that was.

What fun.

He made his approach; time to go greet the neighbors.

do they start tweeting?

[paysforall]

Personas are a flash and burst of cognitive power, not unlike fireworks.

In contrast, a Reaper - or, frankly, a Player - in combat was more sustained; still fluctuating somewhat, but more like a fire that rises and falls as fuel is added and burned away. In some ways, it's more flashy than a Persona user would be, at least as far as what's happening to the enemies.

A brightly colored cartoon bullet leaves the chamber of his gun, bursting when it hits the center of a group of weak Shadows into pieces that take down the rest. The Akechi - maskless, taller and older by average - holding the gun spins, facing but not quite pointing the weapon at the new arrival.

He takes a moment there, before lowering the gun entirely to his side. "Not a Shadow," he observes, eyebrows raised. "Though I think I would definitely remember that outfit."

nobody tweets anymore, it's called X-ing now.

[herewardbound]

Huh. One more 'Goro Akechi' for the list. Funny, the way the world worked. "No, definitely not a shadow. Demon, by some metrics, but it's a long story."

He tilted his head, taking in the other man's appearance. A couple years older than the mean. And the wings... No mask, either. Weird.

Well, nothing for it. Test the waters with a joke. "Goro Akechi, I presume?"

[paysforall]

"Indeed. It's a pleasure to meet you, Goro Akechi." The shared joke is enough to bring an amused quirk to his lips, one that's reflected in his eyes - the expression is more open than on their younger selves, generally.

"Shrike, if you want to be more specific on the codenames front." He holsters the gun at his thigh, confident at least for the moment that he won't need it. "And I daresay we have quite a few long stories running around. I tend to get a few raised eyebrows on age alone, as you might guess."

[herewardbound]

"Phoenix. Too goddamn many of us, apparently. You do look older, though. I'm going to hazard a guess, and suggest that both of us have been through a great deal of additional bullshit compared to the others, which probably explains why we're both so far out of the norm."

[paysforall]

"And I'm sure there's nothing symbolic in that choice." Some amusement there, but also some genuineness - he'd never have chosen it himself, but he understands where the impulse comes from, ultimately. "It's been three years, in my case, which made me the oldest by a good bit the last time I was here."

[herewardbound]

"It's been... two? Give or take?" Keeping track of the time was hard at the best of times, especially when he'd jumped from February to June, then from November to fucking July- it was really just easier to say 'I'm nineteen', even if that wasn't strictly true. "But no, absolutely nothing symbolic. Nothing to do with cheating death, or anything."

[paysforall]

"Ah, so my seniority is still intact." Mostly a joke. He's not going to go around making the other Akechis call him 'senpai' or anything, that would be too much.

"Isn't the mythology of the phoenix that it does in fact die before rising again?" he asks. "I think it might be more fitting in my case, then, but I'm not proposing a trade."

[herewardbound]

"If it helps, I did, in fact, die. Twice, actually. The third time was just certain death that I escaped. So... maybe we should start a club, instead."

[paysforall]

"Ah, just the once, in my case." Point back to you, Phoenix. "A club might be useful, though I'm not particularly sure what meetings would be about."

[herewardbound]

"No idea, honestly. I only picked Phoenix because everything the fuck else seemed to be taken already."

[paysforall]

"Of the corvids, certainly," Shrike agrees. "I don't think we have a Jay yet. Might suggest that to the next one."

He's joking. Mostly.

[herewardbound]

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the next one will be an angel. I'll be the first to suggest 'Cardinal'."

He'd been spending too much time around Blitzø, fucking hell. That had been a terrible pun.

[paysforall]

... Ugh. There's a slight tip-forward of Shrike's head - he doesn't groan, but he does pinch at the bridge of his nose.

"Only if he's a redhead."

[herewardbound]

He snorted. "Christ on a stick. Compounding the regular bullshit in my life with the absolute horseshit that mixed-race children in this fucking country already get? That's like throwing a bag of ice into a deep fryer that's already smoking."

[paysforall]

"Could be dyed. Most people think my partner's is." To be fair his partner has bright red hair like an anime character. "Not that that would get us much less shit, but I could see one of us becoming a delinquent of Sakamoto's type if we didn't get involved with Shido. Just give up on the opinions of the world and wear the resentment and 'fuck you' on the outside."

It's not like the world didn't give up on him until he was suddenly useful.

[herewardbound]

"Partner's as in... teammate, or the other one?" He raised an eyebrow a fraction, curious now.

[paysforall]

"Closer than a mere teammate, not romantic." That's the best simple summary he can give. There are some things that are hard to explain in words to an outsider, after all. "We shared a single life force for a while, if that clarifies things any."

[herewardbound]

"I'm going to guess that has something to do with why your powerset seems so outside of the norm. Fascinating." He shrugged. "Well, if you'd like a hand with whatever you're doing, I'm only here to keep myself sharp, and I'm not strictly supposed to be doing this alone. Want a hand?"

[paysforall]

"Psychic-powers-based shinigami, actually rendered with the English word 'Reaper' in official documentation." Hence why 'phoenix' might be more fitting - but only might.

He shrugs. "I was doing much the same, honestly. There's a significant enough amount of crossover that abilities from the Underground work in the Metaverse, but not vice versa. I'm long out of the habit of using Personas."

[herewardbound]

He nodded, cracking his neck. "Is your 'Underground' accessible from here, then? That's interesting. I myself have a fair number of Personas on-hand, but I also lost touch with a good deal of my previous strength. I'm trying to rebuild it, but it's slow going. What can you do, out of curiosity?"

[paysforall]

"Technically, but it's unsettlingly empty. Imagine Mementos without a single Shadow in it." That's basically the same thing as an Underground without Noise and the thoughts of living people occasionally bouncing around. There's not enough people to fill it up.

He shrugs. "Lots of things that look like they belong in an action RPG," he says. "I usually use my gun as a focus rather than slinging psychs around with just my hands, so explosive bullets, ice bombs, that kind of thing. I'm half-decent at telekinesis and I can use a blade of psychic energy if I wind up in melee, but usually that's my partner's job."