personavelvetroomdr | (no subject)

1. What's without

[To long time residents of this closet of a dimension, the figure leaning against the base of ~~Hachiko~~Buchiko'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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, this time I was specifically looking for it, after being called away." He doesn't offer much more explanation than that. "The first time I ended up here, I was investigating an unusual cognitive event, and found a peculiar door that I, like a fool, decided to open up without backup."

"So it's possible to leave and come back?" Not that Makoto has a single intention to do so, of course. He is also fascinated by the fact that the Velvet Room seems to appear as the same door that summons all its guests. How does it choose? He figures there's probably not a need to worry about it right that second.

"Not intentionally, as far as I can tell. I was yanked back to my previous world by a demigod and had to find my own way back to this place." Not under his own control at all, oops.

Well that was something of note at least. Makoto doesn't think Nyx is itching to yank him back to his own reality anyhow. "That sounds like a hassle." As they approach Central Street Makoto gets lost in thought and hangs the way to the bookstore. Ren might appreciate a manga or two as a thank you gift for saving Makoto's life. He tried to not talk about himself honestly. "So what is your world like?" He asks to the Akechi that followed him along.

"Well, I was born in what seems to be a fairly typical variation of my life, but ended up in a different universe's Shibuya afterwards." They're almost out of sight of the 109 building, but before they are, Akechi pauses to point at it. "Among other small differences, that is the 104 building, there."

"Oh." Makoto hums. "Are Personas a thing in that world?" How did Shrike get there? If it was by dying Makoto can't help but feel a bit jealous about the kindness that his friends likely wouldn't have. It doesn't really matter though because Makoto can't change his situation.

"Not so far as I've been able to discover, unless you count Jung." The psychological philosophies played out by Personas and Shadows were still theorized; they just don't seem to be direct reflections of observable effects. Or perhaps observable effects don't imitate them - it's always hard to tell, with the cognitive world. "Though there are some remarkably similar effects in terms of cognitive psience. I've begun researching the comparisons in earnest, now that I can use this place as a sort of middle-ground."

Interesting, so there were worlds that used similar ideas without really being connected to the cognitive world at all. "How'd you end up there?" Makoto was sort of curious since he mentioned being from a world with Personas at first.

"Oh, my dead soul got picked up by a demigod who needed volunteers-slash-cannon-fodder to clean up the mess someone made of his district while he was on vacation." It's said in a deliberately casual tone, like it's not that important, even though he knows it fundamentally is. But that tone tends to throw people off enough that they don't ask too many follow-up questions.

Makoto isn't too shocked by Shrike mentioning that he died. The way he found himself in that specific afterlife seems a little bit outlandish, but no more so than Makoto's own supernatural nature. "I'm guessing the demigod wasn't connected to a specific event like the Dark Hour in that case," he mentions.

"Oh, no, different system entirely so far as I can tell." He's at least been brief that there's a god behind their world's bullshit, so it stands to reason that other persona events would be the same. Interesting but not surprising.

Makoto hums to that, wondering how Shrike found the Velvet Room in the first place in that case. Maybe it was open to anyone that knew or would learn about Personas in that case.