personavelvetroomdr | a wild punk knitter appears

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a wild punk knitter appears

Kanji's just confused by this whole blue room thing. The... Velvet Room? Didn't Souji-senpai mention something like that once? Well, whatever; he mostly just wants to go home.

And home is where it sinks in that whatever's happening is real enough to take seriously, because his mom's not there.

Okay. That's. That's gonna be weird, but he can work with this. He'd still rather stay at home than anywhere else - it's familiar. And it has all his craft shit.

Once he's had a moment to be weirded out, he might even take some of that craft shit outside for a little project work somewhere. The hill, probably, since it has a nice view.

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"Another who now?"

As for the rest, who knows. Kanji sure doesn't.

"Ah, just someone who is apparently very important to me in the future." He grumbles a little, cheeks lightly pink. "...My, ah. Future self is dating him."

Which is very, very strange to admit, even to a version of Kanji. Imagine finding out about your future love life. It's weird.

"Huh. Hell of a thing to know ahead of time." At least Kanji's not going to give him shit about being into guys. For one thing, he likes to think he's not that big of a hypocrite.

(Even if mostly he's into 'whatever the hell Naoto's doing, as long as Naoto is doing it with confidence.')

"Got any idea what he's like?"

He'll go ahead and sit down, now that the initial name confusion has been settled. "Well, I've met a few versions of him here with different temperaments. I feel as though they generally have a mysterious vibe that draws others in, occasionally with a playful sense of humor. Then there's Akira-kun, who is very young and I honestly relate to more like Nanako-chan."

Nanako... ah, another face he sorely misses. Alas. "But I suppose the benefit of seeing a bunch of people who are 'the same person' is that their differences still make it easy to see them as individuals. So interactions with them are less 'this is the person I'm going to date when I'm eighteen' and more 'they look like the person who I may end up dating, but they aren't literally him.'"

"Guess that's a good way to look at it." As good a way as you can get when there's like six of any given person around.

Or at least of those two people in particular. Whichever.

He looks up at the menu for a moment, chin in hand. "Hmm... Everything is free here, so technically, we could order their most expensive items without fear." Oh, how tempting. Even their Mega Beef Bowl would be free even without completing it. Heh, heh...

What fun.

"But I think the most unfortunate thing about all this is how empty the place feels. All the people you'd expect to see, like Chie-san, Amagi-san, even Hanamura-san and Teddie-san... Just absent. I did encounter the fox in the TV world, but otherwise it's almost a ghost town."

Kanji's sticking to his usual, because you can't go wrong with roast pork ramen. Also it's not raining, so the mega beef bowl wouldn't feel right.

"Yeah, it's weird as hell not havin' Mom in the shop, but... rather stay there than anywhere else." Not to mention not having Naoki across the street to go bother.

Hmmm... perhaps some gyoza and a large bowl of nikudon to start. He gives the order to one of the cognitions to start before setting his attention back on Kanji. "I know the feeling. Initially, it was just me at the Dojima house, but now I'm staying with my future self, a littler version of myself, and a five year old Akira-kun. It's certainly preferable to being alone, but I can only imagine how awkward it'd be if another universe's Dojima-san, Narukami-san, or Nanako-chan were to appear."

"Knowing Souji-senpai, he'd just roll with it. Dojima-san probably would too, once he got his head around it." Sure, he's a cop, but he's the only cop in town who can actually tell the difference between 'Kanji actually did a thing this time' and 'everyone's blaming Kanji for existing again.'

"Nanako-chan would have a billion questions, but that ain't necessarily a bad thing."

He nods along. "I can see Dojima-san being a little alarmed, but he's a good man. I doubt he'd kick us out, especially considering the kids. As for Nanako-chan... I can only imagine she'd be ecstatic to have some new playmates. Space is the main concern, if anything."

Then again, this place abides by very unusual rules. Perhaps the space would expand. It wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen.

Edited 2023-09-15 22:30 (UTC)

"...Yeah, that ain't exactly the biggest house, is it."

But they got a resourceful bunch of people here. If it came to that, they could figure something out.

"Bigger than some of the homes I've lived in, but living with two other children and a teenage version of myself certainly does change things." Granted, that's only one more person than had been living there in his world, and no adults.

Ah... No adults. "To be honest, I think the most difficult part is that we're all either children or teenagers. We're trying our best to take care of the kids, but obviously an eighteen year old detective is not the same as a man in his forties who already is a parent, and I'm certainly no more experienced."

"Yeah." Kanji sighs. "At least they ain't here on their own, but..."

He's sure as hell not equipped to raise a kid. He's still a kid himself.

"We're doing our best. I think my older self has an edge in that he actually knows how to cook, somehow, and he's lived with Nanako-chan for long enough that he's easily the most experienced out of us in caring for younger children."

He blows a small sigh at that, thankful for the food as it finally arrives. "I obviously won't try to rope you into impromptu babysitting, but I have a feeling they'd be very interested in one of your plushies."

"How that happened is probably he listened to Souji-senpai." Kanji's not a bad cook, but Senpai's definitely on another level. (The girls are... well, has Chie ever been in the same room as a cookbook in her life, and Yukiko's improving, and Rise does okay when reminded she's not cooking for either the tofu shop or only herself.)

"Sure, no problem. What kinda animals do they like?"

"Akira-kun loves dinosaurs, and I suspect the younger me would enjoy a matching plush, so perhaps..." Hmm, he pauses, taking a bite of gyoza as he contemplates. "Perhaps two little feathered velociraptors? One colored like Red Hawk and another that's black and gold for Akira-kun?"

Raptors are close enough to birds, anyway, that it wouldn't be too off putting, and then they could have a matching pair.

Kanji nods. "Got it. I'll let you know when they're ready."

"Oh, we may need to exchange numbers for that, if it isn't too much trouble." He pauses. "...Well, that, and it would be rather nice to keep in touch regardless. But I also don't want to impose, since I'm still mostly a stranger to you."

Too much eagerness might be off putting. He needs to keep his expectations reasonable, since he's starting from scratch here.

Oh, right. That's a thing. "Yeah, no problem."

It's a little weird having a fan club, even if it's a fan club of one, but... what the hell. He can roll with it.

"Although, perhaps after we eat." Still, he'll set his phone to the side, not too close to his food. "And if you'd like to see my findings regarding the Midnight Channel and other assorted Inaba oddities, I certainly wouldn't be opposed. It'd be interesting to see how my findings compare to someone who had seen 'all' of it from beginning to end."

"Damn, kid, you wanna show off your work about as bad as Naoto, don't you?" But if the way Kanji's smiling is any indication, that's not a bad thing. "Sure, go for it."

"...Well, yes. Shirogane-san is a big inspiration." And Kanji knows Naoto. Kanji knows Naoto. That's so cool. If he was starstruck before, now...

Well, now he's just going to set his notepad out, but in such a way where it's not at risk for being soiled by the food.

It is good food, of course. He's enjoying himself quite a bit.

"You don't say. Well, Naoto's pretty cool like that." Struggles to see it, but: Naoto's pretty cool like that.

Between bites of his own food, Kanji makes his way through the notes. "Shit, you've been busy," is his first comment - but entirely justified, when Kanji's own friends didn't know half of this until months after Akechi strung it together.

"There is one thing you're missing, and even Naoto didn't think of it until we went over everything all over again. But I dunno if you want me to tell you, or if you wanna wait and figure it out on your own. Could also tell you what's up with the gas station dude, but again, you might not want me to."

The Arcana shit sounds like stuff Souji-senpai's mentioned before, but that's not something Kanji knows a whole lot about. But it does suggest he's eating lunch with a twelve-year-old Wild Card (seriously, who keeps trusting kids with saving the world?).

"Oh, and I'm pretty sure the fox is the weird lady in white who's at the shrine at night."

Hmmm... On one hand, answers that could be useful later. On the other hand, his older self...

Would knowledge be the forbidden fruit? Would it damage his future self? Or would the timeline fork, bend in such a way where they can coexist?

It's a troubling thought that gives him pause, so he opts to take some beef in his chopsticks and munch as he mulls it over.

"If even Shirogane-san overlooked it, it must be quite the subtle detail. On the other hand, if he is to arrive in Inaba, our combined efforts could make reaching the truth easier. I also seem to have established one of those arcana bonds with the attendant, so that might be useful? To be honest, my notes are due for some updates in that respect, but the fox..."

Well, that's an interesting notion. "Well, I always figured there was something supernatural about it, anyway. It even took a request from the attendant directly to me."

"The lady's only out there at night, she hides by the fortune box so well I can't see her from my room, and she asks people who go in there for raw fish to feed her kids. I know sushi's a thing, but she wants like... fish from the river." Kanji is not sure he'd trust those fish for sushi purposes. "So I'm pretty sure she's the fox, which explains a lot about the fox. Like how she knew those leaves were so useful in the first place."

And, he guesses, why the fox would pester the gas station attendant at all.

"Well, the gas station dude's not a guy, for one thing. Not sure if she's a woman either, really, but she's not a guy."

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