[open/intro]

[fireandfaith]

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!]

Comments

[fireandfaith]

Ann--stills. Does he not know? How doesn't he know? Aren't there a bunch of Akiras here? Or Rens? Hasn't even one of them mentioned the truth of Caroline and Justine?

Carefully, wary--not wanting to say something upsetting if this is something that is different between their worlds, too--Ann asks: "Those girls...are their names Caroline and Justine?"

Ann nods at his second point. "That's what we did, at least. But as for what comes after..." She shrugs, helpless. She wouldn't be here if there was an after, after all.

[fogbornphantom]

"I believe so. Margaret found them rather... concerning, as did Theodore." But it's odd. A fake Igor creating his own fake attendants? How did he even begin to achieve that?

Still, the way Ann describes what ultimately happened with Yaldabaoth gives him pause. His brow creases in equal parts confusion and concentration. "But I take it that shortly after, this 'decision' came into play that sent you hurtling into the past?"

[fireandfaith]

Ann's mouth open and closes, jaw working fruitlessly as she tries to figure out how to tell him...what she has to tell him. "That's--they're Lavenza," Ann rasps. "Caroline and Justine...they're her. Yaldabaoth tore her in two. That's how it goes in my world, at least."

Ann nods. This question isn't any harder to answer, but...the matter of it is a little less harrowing, right now. "Mementos and reality started...blurring into one," Ann says. "It's really hazy for me after that until Lavenza pulled me into the Velvet Room, but she said that that's the moment Yaldabaoth revealed himself--and he offered Akira a deal. We didn't have enough time for her to explain everything, but she was fairly confident that, had he not done so...we would have been able to fight Yaldabaoth once and for all." But he'd been too afraid, and he'd made the decision he had.

[fogbornphantom]

Give him a moment to stare as he tries to process all of this.

"They split..." And yet, is that truly so shocking? Izanami and Marie were once one entity and became independent existences. When he looks at it from that angle, it starts to make a little more sense, and the shock slowly subsides. "Actually, I have met another being in a similar situation. I suppose the question then becomes how to restore her..."

The rest... hm. It's dire, certainly, and Crow cups his chin in hand, thinking it over. It's not an unfamiliar scenario, at least. "In any case, I imagine whatever deal he made must have appealed to Ren's emotions in a similar vein as Maruki's deal in Sparrow's world. I am glad that you at least got a fresh start to set things right, whereas things didn't end quite so fortunately with Sparrow and his Ren."

[fireandfaith]

Ann grimaces. "From what Lavenza told me, it's as simple as fusing the twins back together. Like Personas...but maybe you can find a way to do that that doesn't involve guillotines?"

Ann nods, thinking of Akira's Compendium, open on Lavenza's lap; thinks of the shattered remains of all the linked him to Justice. "Yaldabaoth told him we were all dead, I think," she says. "Or at least implied it. And...after the engine room, on Shido's ship...I think he was more afraid of that than he would have been." She's wondered, several times, if Akechi had made it out of Shido's Palace alive--would Akira have taken that deal? Was Akechi going to be alive in the new world Yaldabaoth was making; was that what tipped him into saying yes, in the end?

Cruel thoughts, with no resolution. She pushes them down into the garbage where they belong.

"It all could have been...much worse," Ann agrees.

[fogbornphantom]

"...I assure you that fusion typically doesn't require such barbaric methods." Ugh. But then, it is fitting for a malicious entity to operate in such a manner. The talk of gallows was one of Crow's first hints that something was amiss.

Hmm, but that description does align with the other timeline, doesn't it? "That stands to reason, seeing how it was Sparrow's life that Maruki used as a bartering chip. Perhaps the trick, then, would be to ensure your world's version of me survives. Do that, then even if Maruki does ascend in Yaldabaoth's stead, he will have one less tool to use against Akira."

[fireandfaith]

"Yeah, thank god," Ann says fervently. If she found out that Elizabeth was beheading Personas in an alleyway to help her out, she'd cry.

"And that's the plan! Obviously I wasn't going to let him die regardless, if I could help it, but..." There's a reason Lavenza made sure that the sight of the broken chain of Justice between Akira Kurusu and a very dead Goro Akechi was burned into her mind. "It really does seem like a tipping point across universes, huh."

[fogbornphantom]

"Many universes, at least. I believe our circumstances make it less of an inevitability, but obviously Ren and I intend to take matters seriously as leaders of the Phantom Thieves in order to ensure we all make it out in one piece."

Though... heh. Another thought crosses his mind. "Meanwhile, one of my counterparts took quite a bit of prodding before he finally accepted to not try to kill Ren in November and, more importantly, that his life is worth living and that he shouldn't expect to simply die when all is said and done."

[fireandfaith]

It's weird, thinking of them being co-leaders. Cute, though.

"Yeah," Ann says, in a tone that says what she's about to say is an extreme understatement, "you're all a bit hardheaded like that." Goro Akechi, in general, has more in common with Ryuji than she thinks either of them would like to admit...

[fogbornphantom]

"I'd say I'm an exception, but I have it on good authority that I exhaust way too much energy trying to keep the peace around here and making other people's problems my own." He shrugs, as if it's no big deal, really. "Such is the fate of a Wild Card, I suppose."

[fireandfaith]

"Yeah..." Ann sighs. "It makes you wonder: what came first? The chicken, or the egg? Either having the Wild Card makes you like this, or being like this is what grants the Wild Card in the first place."

Ann, herself, isn't a 'Wild Card' like most of the people here who can claim that title probably are; hers is on loan, contracted. So she's an outlier on that front.

[fogbornphantom]

"In my case, it's more... conditioning, honestly. I was taught that in order to heighten my power, I had to reach out to others and build bonds. So I had to make myself do just that, and now it's almost muscle memory."

This, of course, presents its own share of problems, not the least among them being how worried those around him get.

[fireandfaith]

"Bonds," Ann says, and thinks of the shattered links of Justice, dark across Akira's Compendium. Thinks of her own bond to him--the chain of the Lovers, now sitting perfect and unbreakable about her wrist, ten links strong. "Mm. I don't have any of my own--I think, Liz hasn't been really forthcoming unless I ask stuff first, and I've had other things on my mind--but I've seen the sort of strength they have." She holds her hand up in example, chuckling a little to herself at her joke, because the other side of the Arcana that keeps it clasped to her is Lavenza's, offered freely--Strength, heh.

[fogbornphantom]

"I actually awakened my abilities by shaking hands with a gas station attendant." Is it a segue? Perhaps, but the raised hand brings back memories. "Suffice it to say, it was no ordinary wage slave."

[fireandfaith]

Honestly, Ann's first question to that is why were you shaking hands with a gas station attendant? But she supposes they do things differently in small towns.

"I'd sure hope so," she laughs. "Imagine if getting a Persona was as easy as grabbing a snack at your local 777?"

[fogbornphantom]

"Apparently it was, in the 90's. The Persona users of that era played a little thing called the 'Persona Game' and were bestowed the power by a man named Philemon."

It's such a ludicrous thought, but an enviable one, too. Raven would flip if he knew.

[fireandfaith]

"What, they just played this game, and it got them a Persona? In the real world?" Ann doesn't feel jealous. She doesn't feel jealous at all. "Could they use their Personas in realspace? Futaba and I have actually been working through some of her mother's notes on realspace application, and if I tell her there's a bunch of people from the 90s who can do it no problem she's going to lose her mind."

[fogbornphantom]

"Apparently. Believe me, I was just as baffled by the notion, and if Raven were to find out, he'd be greatly offended..." But while he scowls a little, it doesn't last long before his face relaxes again. "But, yes, they can use Personas in reality. In fact, many of my coworkers can thanks to special devices called Evokers."

[fireandfaith]

"An Evoker?" Ann's eyes light up at the mention of a device that can do what she and Futaba have been trying to do for months, with very little to show for their efforts. "I don't suppose you could tell me where I could track one of those down?" Whatever they are.

[fogbornphantom]

A little smirk returns to Crow's face, and he chuckles softly. "I did acquire two for one of my counterparts and one of the Rens. Technically, I could return to the Shadow Operatives headquarters to get you one, although I should probably warn you in advance that Evokers look a lot like guns and require their user to aim them at their heads to summon."

[fireandfaith]

That's a wild thing to say; it's a wild thing to hear. It says a lot about how determined Ann has become that she barely feels squeamish about the concept--though she acknowledges to herself that the reality of pointing a gun to her head might be a little different than just thinking yeah, I could do that.

"Being able to heal in the real world, however limited, would help a lot," Ann says--because she's playing with the big boys now; big boys with real guns and real assassins. She's about to say if it's not too much trouble, could you pretty please get me one? when she registers the key thing about what he said:

"Shadow Operatives," Ann says, thinking of Wakaba Isshiki's notes. "They're--government, right?" She and Futaba hadn't managed to find much on them beyond mere mentions in her mother's notes, and their mentioned affiliation with the government had turned them off trying to contact them...but if Crow knows them, maybe they're not actually as useless as they'd thought?

[fogbornphantom]

"They're government in that Kirijo-san effectively wanted to run the organization as legitimately as possible, but that does not mean they necessarily see eye to eye, and..." His face threatens to warp into another scowl. "Well, ever since Shido's rise to power, things have gotten decidedly more complicated, which is one of many reasons they've assigned me to monitor the metacognitive phenomena in Tokyo."

[fireandfaith]

"Mm, I was sort of wondering why there weren't any adults getting involved in Mementos if, according to you, there are Persona users going back decades." Like, if they're not dead, why are they not helping? "Makes sense that it's because of Shido, again. Ugh. I wonder if trying to monitor stuff is why Iori-sensei got hired..." Since Crow had mentioned a Kirijo in relation to her teacher earlier; she had thought it a bit strange that a school prestigious for their athletics would choose a man barely into his twenties to replace a former Olympian, even with such short notice.

[fogbornphantom]

"It's entirely possible. Junpei-san isn't one of the front liners in the Operatives and is more of a reserve member. He has the mundane career path of being a baseball coach to fall back on, whereas Kirijo-san is a far more public figure, and Aigis-san and Labrys-san are both robots. They had even planned to send Sanada-san to fulfill a similar purpose in my reality, but Maruki beat him to the punch."

Suffice it to say, Akihiko was hardly pleased by that fact. Nobody was. Crow pinches the bridge of his nose at the memory.

"Our circumstances differ in that Shido is using Maruki rather than a version of me and, as such, is using brainwashing rather than those mental shutdowns, but that makes matters especially dire."

[fireandfaith]

"From everything I've heard about Maruki, that doesn't surprise me," Ann says. "He seems the type to do what he has to if it gets him what he wants." Even if it's fucked up on both sides of that equation. "You have any ideas how to deal with him?" At least with Goro, if it got truly and extraordinarily bad, it would just take a matter of ending or containing him to put a stop to the shutdowns while trying to figure out how to stop Shido; there's no guarantee that locking Maruki up--or, yes, killing him--would undo what's already been done, she supposes. Especially dire...yeah, she can see that.