personavelvetroomdr | [open/intro]

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[open/intro]

Ann knows this place.

This shade of blue, and the song...though its notes flow far more harmoniously than they had the last (and only) time she'd heard them, the melody itself is enough to make Ann's heartbeat kick up a notch. That song only plays in the Velvet Room--and the Velvet Room is not a place she wants to be. Lavenza had said it. Her gut had said it--and Elizabeth had confirmed it. The Velvet Room was in the control of Yaldabaoth, wearing the skin of Igor.

Ann had never met Igor, personally, but both Akira in the previous timeline and the Attendants she'd encountered had painted a vivid picture of him. Taking in her surroundings carefully (this Room matched neither the descriptions of a prison Akira had once given her, or the crumbling ruins Lavenza had pulled her into at the End of a World), Ann eyes the man she can only assume is Yaldabaoth. And, even if it is truly Igor...

She's never met the man, and she doesn't trust anything he has to say to her. She might not be garbed in her will of rebellion, currently, but Célestine is always with her, and steeling her spine with a little of her flame, Carmine stands tall and proud.

Ann takes in the doors. Makes a split second decision that she shouldn't just be rushing into making a decision; Lavenza, and Elizabeth, she trusts--and she's heard Elizabeth describe their siblings enough that she feels as though she can trust them too. She'll poke around in this unfamiliar Velvet Room for now, and see if she can't encounter one of them...or at least someone who can tell her what's going on.

[OOC: check out Ann's AU info and perms here!]

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It's startling, to have a date so far back confirmed as a time where Persona users were active--the Velvet Attendants had always felt a sort of timeless to Ann, but the whole cognitive realm had not. If any of the Persona users from back then were still around...

Ann doesn't trust adults. But if there was anyone she could ask for advice, or help--anyone who Yaldabaoth didn't have his eyes on--it would probably be them. Right? She makes a mental note to ask around about locations and names, later. Just to cover her bases.

"I wonder how they pick their Wild Cards," Ann muses, "I guess I technically am one right now, but it's sort of a proxy thing? I made a contract with Elizabeth, and she 'loaned' me her potential."

"Oh, you've met Elizabeth?" How interesting. Crow tips his head down, stroking his chin. "In my world, she ceased to be a Velvet Room attendant, though she did appear during the 'P-1 Grand Prix' to test Yu's potential and again after we defeated Hi-no-Kagutsuchi. As I understand it, she also reached out to Labrys-san around that time..."

Quite the enigmatic one, that Elizabeth.

"Regardless, I believe you can trust her. For as eccentric as she is, she generally has good intentions."

"I think that happened in my world, too," Ann says. "The entire reason I met Elizabeth is because she wasn't in the Velvet Room when Yaldabaoth took it over. She ambushed me in Shibuya because she sensed the deal I'd made with Lavenza, and offered a deal of her own--her aid, in Persona fusions, and in turn I would tell her everything I know and work to free her siblings from Yaldabaoth." Ann would never forget the way Elizabeth's eyes had burned when Ann had told her of what had been done to Lavenza...and that she had no idea what had befallen Theodore or Margaret.

"She's been helpful, so far," Ann admits. "If...enigmatic, I guess, would be the best way to put it." Elizabeth functions on a wavelength the rest of them can't hope to tune into, most of the time.

"Yaldabaoth trapped them? In my world, Margaret and Theodore were forcibly ejected from the Velvet Room, while Lavenza went missing..." Either way, they were 'dealt with,' but it seems that fate was kinder to the two of them than in Ann's world. Crow makes a mental note about this.

"But enigmatic certainly is an apt way to describe her. Elizabeth is fiercely independent, coming and going as she pleases. I always had trouble assessing her actions and intentions. Then again, part of being a Wild Card is being adaptable, and she certainly has taken to her life outside the Velvet Room rather well, all things considered."

"We don't actually know what happened to Theodore or Margaret," Ann says, "but Elizabeth thinks that something must have, otherwise they would have contacted her when the Velvet Room became inaccessible." Ann, sadly, hadn't been much help on that front--she hadn't even known they'd existed until Elizabeth had asked her if she knew what had happened to her siblings other than Lavenza; Lavenza, Ann had had to explain, simply had not had enough time to tell her anything that wasn't vital.

"I mostly see her in Shibuya, when we meet in person. I have no idea where she goes when she isn't there, but I do agree that she's probably not doing anything bad."

"At most, she's probably just throwing ridiculous sums of money into wishing wells." He'd heard about that in passing. Other odd little excursions here and there as well. A quiet little chuckle slips from him at the memory, though it's fleeting.

"Margaret and Theodore have effectively gone incognito as ordinary humans. Kirijo-san has helped them acclimate as best she can, even pulling some strings to plant Margaret at Shujin. It's certainly been beneficial to have a homeroom teacher who knows me and is familiar with metacognitive phenomena."

"Elizabeth certainly is...unique." She doesn't really know how to explain the whole Velvet Room app and "digitized fusion" that Elizabeth is so eager for her to try out. Her phone should...not be able to do that, she thinks? It's slightly unnerving. "I'm glad that her siblings are doing okay in your world, though. She really seems to care about them, you know? Not knowing what's happened to them...it stresses her out."

Ann sighs. "I would love to have some adults around who know what I'm doing," she says. "It would make getting stuff done so much easier...at least Iori-sensei doesn't really care if we skip PE." That's about the only time she has to do her homework, considering her time outside of school is so packed with Metaverse stuff.

"Wait. Junpei-san is your PE teacher?" That's... huh. It's not that Junpei is a bad fit. By all accounts, he has experience working with kids. While Akechi would question if he could handle the ruthlessness of teenagers at times, by then he'd surely have built some experience.

So, huh. That's new. Crow cups his chin in hand in that typical Akechi fashion as he tries to envision this.

"Junpei-san??" Hearing Crow call her PE teacher that so casually is a little surprising. "You know him? And yeah, he was hired pretty last minute, given that--" She freezes. If she mentions that Kamoshida died mere days before the school year even started...he's going to know, isn't he?

"Something happened to Kamoshida, I presume." Sorry, Anne, but he's a detective. It's his job to connect the dots and read between the lines. Still, he nods. "But yes, I'm familiar with Junpei Iori, along with Mitsuru Kirijo, Yukari Takeba, Ken Amada, Aigis, Labrys, and many others."

"Something, yeah, haha," Ann says. She's gotten better at lying, but not really any better at acting, unfortunately for her. She's trying to think up a way to change the subject when Crow neatly offers her one; most of those names mean nothing to her, but hello?? She grew up watching Featherman!

"Feather Pink?" She squeaks. "Feather Pink is a Persona user?"

Somehow, this makes her childhood crush on Yukari Takeba feel even more embarrassing???

That has... implications. Implications that Crow will tuck away for now, as the subject shifts. The mention of Feather Pink makes him chuckle.

"That she is. In fact, she first awakened to her Persona long before she became a model."

"I'm learning things today," Ann says, feeling a little dazed. "So many things." So much of how she'd gotten comfortable being Panther had been remembering the old shows she'd watched as a child--she'd hunted down the old seasons online and just watched through some of her favourite episodes to try and get the vibes right. She'd never told anyone that; not even Akira or Ryuji. And now that she knows that Feather Pink is someone who could, feasibly, potentially, show up here, she has to make absolutely sure that no one finds out ever.

And then the timeline lines up in her head, and she frowns, because Yukari Takeba was making waves even before she'd finished highschool--it's another way in which she was such an inspiration to Ann. "Are most Persona users...highschoolers?" She asks. If they're not the exception, but the rule...

"I was twelve when I awakened. My half-brother was even younger, and Koromaru-kun is a dog." A beat. "Yes, a dog can wield a Persona. So can robots. I've met two with the ability. Then there's Teddie, who... well, he started off as a living mascot suit and then inexplicably grew a human body inside of him."

And was white, for some reason, though that goes unsaid. Very strange all the same. "And then there's my dad- not Shido, for the record. But imagine being in your forties, learning that the supernatural is real, that your foster child and nephew have been dabbling in a dangerous parallel world, have super powers, and now you also have these abilities after confronting a manifestation of your repressed feelings.

It was... a lot for him."

That's a lot to take in. But Ann's very aware that she's a time traveler and Morgana is a cat, so maybe she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on, here.

That...that is a wild list, though. And a pretty long one, too (mascot costume???).

"So...sort of like if we'd dragged Sojiro into the Metaverse and he'd awakened a Persona, I guess..." Ann muses, before shuddering. She doesn't think Boss would have taken that well--even if he would have enjoyed being able to understand Morgana.

"If Sakura-san was a detective on a supernatural serial murder case that you and your friends were investigating behind his back, yes." Which, naturally, added an extra layer of complications that may have hit differently in Sojiro's case. Heh.

But for as amusing as it is to think about on paper, Crow's smile soon flattens, and he sighs. "Regrettably, we didn't have much leisure time to properly acquaint him with the TV world. Almost immediately after we rescued him, we had to plunge back into the TV world to save my sister."

Tension grips him at the memory, and he cringes. Deep breaths. It's fine. It's fine.

Ann frowns, seeing how Crow tenses. It really seems...like this affected him in a strong way. "I guess your situation...was a lot closer to home," Ann says. "Makes sense, if you consider a small town compared to Tokyo..." Every request and every Palace had hit hard, for Panther. She'd never forgotten even a single one. But it's not like they'd really been personal, except for the one that started it all; all of the friends she'd made, she'd made during or after the fact, so it didn't really count.

"You saved her, though." It's not a question. Ann says it with confidence, meant as a reassurance to the boy who looks so shaken by his memories before her.

"She's still alive today, thankfully, but I..." He averts his eyes, wincing. "Let's just say that in the aftermath, I chased the killer into the TV world, fully determined to end him, and it didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped. It was a rather rude awakening, both in the metaphorical sense and in the literal sense."

Loki... certainly knew how to make an explosive entrance, at least.

"Ah," Ann says. "Well. I certainly understand rushing into impulsive decisions like that." It's how she got Carmen in the first place, after all--filled with righteous wrath and right on the heels of the boys she knew had answers.

It's why, back home, Suguru Kamoshida is dead.

"As long as you made it out in one piece," Ann says bracingly. "A win is a win, right? Even if it's not exactly the win you were hoping for."

"Well, the funny thing is, Adachi got away. It wasn't even the real version of him... just a life-like illusion. My friends and family bore witness to me under the influence of Call of Chaos..." And here he hesitates. The memory remains unpleasant, after all. "They didn't reject me, at least, but I felt so ashamed. Loki's power was useful to fight Adachi, but it wasn't a power I wanted to rely on."

Edited 2024-01-31 06:05 (UTC)

"That just means you're strong," Ann says firmly. "Like how being brave is standing your ground, even when you're afraid. Knowing that power wasn't something you wanted to use again..." Ann can admit to herself, if it had been her in Crow's place; if it was her in Crow's place...she doesn't think she'd be able to make the same decision. She'd wheedle herself into using it because it's so useful, because she's always had more in common with the Black Mask than most of her friends--and especially herself--wanted to think about.

"That's strength, Crow," Ann says. "Of course your family didn't reject you. They knew you, and they would have known that no power could change who you were really."

"Thank you." Aw, look at that. The barest trace of a smile reforms, and he wheezes a self-defeated laugh. "Rationally, I know this. Any family that's worth a damn wouldn't disown someone over righteous anger, but the heart and mind often wage war with one another. Doubly so when you've lived as I have."

He looks down, bringing a hand over his chest. "I can only hope that your struggles haven't been nearly so dire."

Ann smiles back at him, before shrugging. "Well, I've certainly had less troubles," she says. "You've been going since you were just a kid! That's crazy, to me. On the whole...I think I'm doing okay. Mostly things have been good, honestly." It's amazing, that for all the hardship of solitude...when she's not in the Metaverse, when she's just Ann hanging out with her friends? This new timeline of hers shines in a way the last one didn't, because that's literally what they are. Just...friends, hanging out. None of the Thief stuff looming over their heads because they can't talk about it around Ann; none of that hollow feeling because Shiho is there with them.

"If you think that's crazy, Ken has been at it since he was ten." Crow remembers being so envious of that. So competitive. Ken had a head start! Naturally, that meant he had to catch up. The memory brings a nostalgic whisper of a laugh forth. "But it's good to hear that things aren't too terrible. I know enough about the situation to have a broader idea of the pieces on the board, so to speak. Yaldabaoth is certainly going to be a tricky hurdle when we return..."

"Maruki too, apparently..." Ann sighs. "Forewarned is forearmed, at least? If you know what's coming, you can brace for it a little bit." It's what's gotten Ann as far as it has--knowing things from the prior timeline. She never would have gotten this far without having already lived through the year; she's not dumb, but she's not fooling anyone (especially not herself) by claiming to be smart. There's a reason she wasn't in any sort of leadership role in the Thieves, after all.

"The key to Yaldabaoth is his arrogance, I think," Ann offers. "There's a reason Lavenza made him blind to me, over any other gift she could have given--because he's too above it all to think he can't see everything, and that gives me wiggle room. A head on fight...might work, if you have the manpower behind you, especially since you know so many more Persona users than I do...but the best bet is probably trying to find a way to lead him into a defeat of his own making." That's what Ann's trying to do, at least. It's slow going, but it's going.

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