dropkicks him right into the velvet room

[pyrrhicjustice]

[The Velvet Room is now host and occupant to a Goro Akechi who is lying flat on his back. It certainly seems he arrived that way, and he shows no sign of moving yet. His school blazer seems to have been rained on, although in the blue lighting of the Velvet Room it only seems darker than usual.

Maybe once he's been encouraged to move into better lighting, it'll be noticeable that the rain was of a distinctly red nature, but that's for then, and this is now.

Oh, and there's also a blue butterfly flittering nervously at Igor, who seems sad at its presence.

Poke the (not exactly) sleeping Akechi?]

Comments

[paysforall]

[Well, that seems to confirm that the butterfly is listening, at least.]

If you heard the phrase 'sheeple of Shibuya' on a daily basis for three years, you'd bear a grudge too, I promise.

[pyrrhicjustice]

[And now she just sort of... droops, sad. Because that's just what society had become in the past week, and without her Trickster around...

Unfortunately that drooping, while she's sitting on Akechi's nose, is creating a dilemma she's totally forgotten could happen.

Which is to say- she suddenly gets startled into the air when her Akechi sneezes, waking him up in the process.]

[paysforall]

[No points for guessing who is making no effort to control his snicker at that. Politely covering it with a hand, sure, that's old habit and those die... well, you know.

But he doesn't try to stop it.]

Good morning.

[pyrrhicjustice]

[Well, this definitely wasn't what he'd expected to come back to. Sheer confusion - at the ridiculous situation of Lavenza making him sneeze, a mirror image of him in clothes he'd never wear, the wings... his mind goes blank.]

What the fuck?

[paysforall]

You look like you've had better days.

[Oh this is all too familiar a situation, really. Except that it's usually just random Players waking up in front of him, not alternate versions of himself.]

I'd say 'welcome to the Reaper's Game,' but luckily for you, that's entirely the wrong script. You're not dead; I would know.

[Because that's not an ominous thing to say at all!]

As for what happened to you, you'd be better off asking your fluttering friend - all I can tell you is that this is a place sideways to the reality you know, which is primarily populated by alternate versions of us.

[pyrrhicjustice]

On a technicality, let me assure you.

[He groans as he pushes himself upright. Because it hurts, damn it, and also because this is all going to give him a headache on top of that. Glares more than anything at the butterfly.]

Her name is Lavenza, and she's very insistent that the Velvet Room isn't normally like this.

[paysforall]

Luckily, technicalities count.

[The glance he shoots at Lavenza is for a moment almost conspiratorial. But then it's back to putting his attention on his younger self.]

I wouldn't be able to tell you, honestly. Before arriving here, I wasn't particularly familiar with it. So I'll have to trust the expert.

[pyrrhicjustice]

Lucky. Yes. That's certainly one way of putting it. [It's certainly got a nicer ring to it than "last resort."]

I've never been myself, either. But calling her the 'expert' isn't wrong.

[paysforall]

[If not for technicalities, what do they have?]

If this is her area of expertise, then she probably has a decent grasp on the situation already, but just to be clear: there are around half a dozen versions of 'Goro Akechi' in this world, a handful of Jokers - he has two different possible names, inexplicably - a pair of Haru Okumuras and a handful of strangers I don't recognize. It's a shame Lavenza can't converse, we're all beginning to get sick of talking to ourselves.

[Is that a joke? ... Probably, if the amusement twisting his face is anything to go by.]

[pyrrhicjustice]

[He takes that in. He almost appears to be calm. Perhaps compared to other reactions, he might be.]

I revise my statement. [He glances at the butterfly.] Are you sure we aren't in Hell? Because I'm sure he just described it.

[He's not sure what part is worse and more befitting of the "title of Hell." So many more of him? At least two different kinds of Joker, no matter his name? Okumura? It's one bad thing after another.]

[paysforall]

I thought the phrase was "hell is other people."

[Okay okay he's done joking.]

All that aside, the only other 'people' here are the sort of vague cognitions you'd find wandering Mementos, and they don't care what you do. They just provide basic services, although there's no need to pay for anything.

That said, if you're looking to go home to the same apartment that the rest of us had, you might find it occupied, so you'll probably have to get a new coat somewhere else.

[pyrrhicjustice]

[He's fairly sure at this point that hell isn't just 'other people,' it's a place throwing his idiocy and the consequences of his actions in his face over and over. And if this... other, very strange Akechi doesn't realise that? Maybe the rude gesture will help.]

From what you've said, neither of those things will be much of an issue, though I think I'd prefer to see for myself.

[It's not as though he's incredibly attached to the place. But having to start from nothing in that way too... it's another straw, that's all.]

[paysforall]

[He's too old to not be a petty child when he wants to be.

Rude gesture back.]

Tokyo is through that one. [He moves rude gesture hand to indicate the door in question.]