Ken's arrival (bis repetita)

[the_ken]

Okay. Well. Ken had to admit that, when he went to bed last night, he did not expect to wake up in a blue room and be welcomed by a long-nosed man. He would have thought that it was a dream, but he's been in enough of them to know it's nothing of the sort. This place had a dinstinct, strong feeling, not quite reality, but much firmer than a dream.

He wasn't certain he could trust Igor-san yet, if he was perfectly honest. But in the case that he was not lying... it was actually great news. The real world was rough, currently, with Yuki-san being...

...

Well, a pause to make new friends couldn't hurt. Especially since he was learning again, learning to be alive, learning to live for himself, like Aragaki-san had asked him to. He couldn't let him down, not in a million years.

Malicious or not, Igor-san was right. He needed bonds. And he would make them.

Someone may meet this Ken...

1) while reading the information board. Even if being here seemed to overall be a good thing, that did not mean throwing caution out of the window. He needed information, and the kind soul having put together this compilation would save him a lot of time.

2) in Iwatodai, Ken being curious to see if the dorm SEES stayed at was still a thing in this strange place.

Comments

[fruitknife]

"Guess so."

Shinji sighs. "I'm sorry, kid. What happened to your mom was an accident, but I'm still the one who caused it." That's not exactly an answer to the question, but it's been a damned long time coming.

"As for the rest, I was fucking lucky and I know it. Wasn't hard to figure out how it usually goes."

[fogboundcrow]

"Aragaki-san certainly confirmed that Falcon isn't the only one, at least. Crow also seems familiar with a few... Anti-Shadow Weapons, I think they were called?" His face crinkled up at the memory. It was certainly something along those lines. "Thank you, though. And I'm certainly not opposed."

He'd just have to figure out how to inform the other Ken. This wasn't a matter of replacement.

[burnmydreadbabe]

Makoto isn't surprised that it's difficult. He'd be weirded out to see his parents or his sister alive and well again, and they passed away almost ten years ago. It's a little bit harder to comfort someone about his own death though. What do you even say to someone about that?

"Wanna talk about it or take your mind off of it?" Either way Makoto isn't just going to not be there for Ken, even if the source of his emotional distress is a little bit surreal to Makoto himself.

[the_ken]

"Well, I'm from Iwatodai myself! I've never been to Tokyo before, so that's neat. Is there like, the whole city there? How large is this place exactly?"

Ken would have felt bad about asking that many questions usually, but Yoshizawa-san's mood seemed to have improved from helping, so why not let her?

[the_ken]

"I see..."

He sighed.

"I suppose you can guess how it happened where I came from, huh? I... I'm sorry, Aragaki-san. I was so consumed, I..."

...

"I'll be honest, it's hard seeing you again. But I'm doing my best heeding my Aragaki-san's last words to me... I'm trying to live for myself. Even if it's hard sometimes."

[the_ken]

"Oh, so you know about the Anti-Shadow Weapons? Sorry for having been slightly duplicitous in my previous reaction then, but they are supposed to be a secret. I hope you can understand..."

He looked a little sheepish.

"I'm personally familiar with Aigis-san. She took a while to fully behave like a human, but we all knew she could do it. I like her!"

[fogboundcrow]

"Crow seems more familiar on the whole. He's, ah... well, as I understand it, he's done some work for Mitsuru Kirijo and her associates. I, on the other hand, have yet to meet her." So Raven shrugged, but listened with interest all the same.

"It's interesting to hear that she became more human over time. It is a rather common trope in science fiction, but it must have been something else to experience it firsthand."

[the_ken]

"Ha... only you could talk about your death on that casual of a tone, Yuki-san."

...

"It just happened..." he continued in a small voice. "We all thought you were tired and were going to rest, and then you... never woke up. We didn't even get to say goodbye to you... we were all blindsided."

Talking about it was hard, it really was. Tears started to form themselves in the corner of his eyes. But on the other hand, it felt relieving to finally talk about it.

[tricksterviolet]

Sumire thinks on it, trying to sort through just how much of Tokyo is there.

"It's not all of it, I don't think... I've never tried visiting beyond the places surrounding the Shibuya area. It could have more than that though. It might be worth looking into...!"

Hearing that Ken's from Iwatodai though, it piques her interest a bit.

"I haven't visited Iwatodai before. I've passed by Odaiba before, but I've never managed to make it out there... What's it like?"

[fruitknife]

"You don't have anything to apologise for. Nothing you could've done to me that was worse than what I was doin' to myself, anyway." 'Maybe you don't have to beat yourself up over it' still sounds fake, sometimes.

"I get it. All anyone could ask you to do is try."

It's all any of them can do, really.

"You gonna crash here, or find somewhere else?"

[burnmydreadbabe]

Just...happened? Makoto was told that he sealed Nyx away from humanity at the cost of his life. It didn't happen right away then. Hm.

"I'm sorry," he finds himself saying anyway. He knows how difficult it can be when you don't get closure from someone passing. It doesn't feel right that Makoto would do that to his team, but there's still a lot surrounding the circumstances of his death that he doesn't know.

[the_ken]

"Crow, who is... the older version of you, right? I wonder how it's like to live with an older version of yourself. It must be weird... and, well, not always easy, right? If you become someone you wouldn't want to be, you have to wonder if it's predetermined, and if you become someone you'd like to be, you have all this additional pressure on you now... plus having to be next to who is essentially a better you."

After a beat, Ken became all flustered.

"O-oh, sorry! I didn't mean that- I mean, I just got lost in thought and- it was a pretty interesting situation, so I couldn't help but rant- that must have come as insensitive, I'm so sorry!"

These situations are so insane that it's hard to remember they are about real people, sometimes...

[the_ken]

"Yes, it could be interesting to find out!"

He looked excited. Maybe a little too much, so he tried to school his expression.

"As for Iwatodai... well, it's much smaller than Tokyo, for sure. Parts of it are kinda modern, too!"

Because the Kirijo group had renovated everything after they messed it up, went unsaid.

"All in all, I like it. It's a nice little city."

[the_ken]

"Well, if you don't mind me, I think here would be best, honestly. Having some familiarity in this unknown place would definitely help... thank you."

That was really nice of Aragaki-san, but by now Ken knew that was just the kind of person he was.

However, now that the initial shock had passed, a question popped up in his mind.

"Err, speaking about what you just said... are you still going to...?"

He hadn't been filled in on what exactly the suppressants did, but in his world, Aragaki-san was about to die from them... and this one seemed to imply he also was unkind to himself.

[fogboundcrow]

"You don't have to apologize. I didn't find it that insensitive." Raven shrugged, bringing a hand below his chin. How to put this... "Honestly, it's a mixed bag. I'm grateful for all that he does, but there's a certain... standard, I suppose, that I feel I must live up to. He and his boyfriend have this stable, health, almost ideal relationship, on top of their successes as Persona users and Phantom Thieves..."

Which probably sounded like nonsense to this Ken, come to think of it. "Well, it's equal parts fascinating and frustrating."

[the_ken]

"It... it's fine. You don't have to apologize for that you didn't do, right? You are two different persons, no matter how similar you are. It's just..."

It's just so difficult. Ken knew that Yuki-san likely had a good reason to give up his own life, but... the wound was still so fresh, the pain still so raw. It hurt. It hurt so much.

[the_ken]

"I see. That sounds tough. But at least that shows that you have it within yourself to get there, right?"

Oh, maybe he shouldn't put that back on the table, even if Raven-san said it was fine.

"Anyway, you should introduce me to them sometimes! I'd be glad to meet more people. Oh, and to hear about these 'Phantom Thieves' and what they do, too!"

[fogboundcrow]

"Crow would likely be able to explain in more depth, anyway, but my understanding is they traverse the cognitive world and steal the distorted desires of wicked adults to make them confess to their sins."

He flashed a little smirk at that. It did all sound rather thrilling, after all.

[burnmydreadbabe]

"I mean, we could be the same person at different points. And I do know how bad it can be when you don't get closure." He still can't figure why he would do that. Maybe it was out of his control. He really hoped that it was.

So for better or worse he is sorry. That he left them like that, and that it happened to Ken even if Ken didn't blame him.

[fruitknife]

"Ain't like there's not plenty of room. Besides, you got as much right to be here as I do."

Maybe more, since Shinji walked away from everything for so long.

"Oh, the suppressant shit? Nah, got that cleared out, last place I was stuck."

[the_ken]

"Wow! So like... individual people's psyches can create a whole cognitive world by themselves? And you can then traverse them and change the person's cognition by physically altering their cognitive world? That's... a little scary to think about, to be honest. But if the Phantom Thieves only used that power to make bad guys confess... they're kinda like real life superheroes! That's so cool!"

Well, if he kept learning about cool stuff like that, his time in this place certainly wouldn't be boring.

[the_ken]

"It just happened, and we don't know much about it... We think it's the strain of what he had to do a month ago, but we're not sure yet. I'm sorry that I can't give you any more details than that."

...

He tried to compose himself a little.

"Yuki-san... can I ask you something?"

[the_ken]

"Oh, you found a solution to it? That's really cool!" he exclaimed, sounding relieved.

If only his own Aragaki-san could have been so lucky...

...

"...wait. 'Last place you were stuck'? What do you mean?"

[fruitknife]

"Exactly what I said. This ain't my first time being yanked away from home."

Koromaru barks. Shinji brought him there too! It was fun! Except for the times he was really bored.

[fogboundcrow]

"It is rather alluring, yes. It seems that there are multiple forms the cognitive world takes, whether it's the TV world within Inaba, or Mementos and the Palaces in Tokyo." Grinning, he even managed a chuckle despite the painful memory. A little false bravado never hurt.

"We actually used one such Palace for a recent operation. It... mostly succeeded." His grin waned there, and for a moment, he looked distant.