[Open Intro] a pirate's life for me

[captainkurusu]

I. In the Velvet Room

The sight of an Akira in a long black coat and a high-necked gray vest is no rarity around these parts, but the one currently studying the conspiracy board is different. He has gold earrings, for one thing, and his clothes have a different style: hand-sewn wool and linen, not the slick, modern leather of Metaverse garb. His casual, hands-in-pockets slouch as he studies the conspiracy board, however, should look familiar to almost anyone.

Well. Anyone who knows an Akiren, anyway.

At the sound of anyone approaching him, Captain Akira turns sharply, his right hand flying to the hilt of the cutlass hanging from his belt. Depending on who he sees, he’ll say one of the following things:

If the character approaching him is an Akiren, his eyes widen briefly in surprise. Then he puts his hands on his hips, studying his double with interest. “You look oddly familiar, somehow,” he quips. “I’m afraid I can’t place you, though.”

If the character approaching him is an Akechi, the choked syllable “Go–” escapes him before he can stop it. Then he cuts himself off, smiling in apology. “Excuse me. I mistook you for someone else.”

If the character approaching him is anyone else, he nods a polite greeting and points at the conspiracy board. “Did you write this?” he asks cheerfully. “ ‘For mine own part, it is Greek to me.’ ”

Whether the character he addresses recognizes the quote or not, Akira’s puzzled expression translates its meaning clearly: Hey. What the hell is this?

II. In Tokyo

Tokyo is the last place Akira ought to set foot in--so of course, it’s the first place he does. To his disappointment, the city beyond the door is all but unrecognizable, full of bright lights and strange buildings and marvels Akira can’t begin to puzzle out. Even so, a vague familiarity remains, an instinct leading him deeper and deeper into the urban sprawl.

Any character passing through Shibuya can find Akira just off of Center Street, standing outside the door to Untouchable with a bemused expression on his face. He runs a hand through his messy hair and sighs, turning to smile at whoever is watching him.

“This place has changed a great deal since I saw it last,” he jokes. “Then again, I was a bit preoccupied the last time I was here.”

Comments

[captainkurusu]

No shame in that. That's a normal time to leave school, in Akira's experience.

"His father, King Hamlet, is murdered by his brother before the start of the play. Because he had no chance to atone for his sins before he died, he's doomed to burn in Purgatory by day and wander the earth every night until he's suffered enough to deserve peace. He chooses to walk the ramparts of his old castle, determined to speak to his son, Prince Hamlet, one last time--and through him, to get his revenge."

Akira gestures at Ren's ragged clothing. "Technically, the play describes him as wearing armor, but the productions I've seen usually try to make him look more spectral and frightening. A ghost in ragged black is far more intimidating than a normal-looking man, armored or not."

[willowandoak]

"Wait, what the fuck." He squints incredulously at Kurusu. They could still be on the street, instead of in Mementos, for all that he's paying attention to their surroundings. He lived in this room, after all. It feels like home—though maybe he shouldn't go too far down that road, what with the Palace shit.

Anyway. "You're telling me Hamlet's actually good?"

[captainkurusu]

"Shakespeare's best, in my opinion. Have you really never seen it?" Akira has entirely forgotten why he came here, too caught up in his favorite subject. His enthusiasm shines through as he talks, punctuating his explanation with animated gestures as if he were an actor himself.

"Prince Hamlet is out of the country when his father dies, attending school with his closest confidant, Horatio. By the time he gets the news and rushes home, he discovers that not only has his piece of shit uncle stolen his throne, he's now fucking Hamlet's mom to boot. Everyone else at court is celebrating the coronation and the new royal wedding, and he's the only one who cares about the funeral--and even worse, now that he's back, his uncle won't let him leave. Fuck no. The prince is a threat to his power, and he knows it. He can't kill Hamlet without upsetting his new wife, so he traps him at court, in the seat of his power, where all his sycophants and servants can keep an eye on him. And Hamlet can't do anything to stop him. He has to sit there and take it while everyone around him fucks him over, ruins his life, and celebrates, and the only thing he can safely do to protest is continue to wear black, as a reminder of the funeral everyone else wants to forget."

[willowandoak]

When the hell would Ren have seen a Shakespeare play...? But as Kurusu explains the premise of Hamlet, he forgets that question. The picture Kurusu paints is vivid, and familiar.

"Yeah," he mutters. "Been there."

[captainkurusu]

Akira doesn't stop to acknowledge the interjection, but he does note it for later. Another point of commonality, it seems. If nothing else, it's another piece to the intriguing puzzle that is Drake.

"He's in despair. He's on the verge of giving up. But just then, his friend Horatio comes to check on him--and what's more, he tells Hamlet about the ghost. That night, while the king and his cronies are getting drunk, Horatio sneaks Hamlet up to the ramparts to confront the ghost for himself. And that's how he finally learns the true punchline: his father's death, the one shitty thing that Hamlet believed was nobody's fault but fate? Why, that was dear old Uncle Claudius fucking him over, too. And that's when Hamlet decides to turn the tables. He doesn't give a tinker's damn about his own life, not after everything his uncle robbed him of. To hell with safety. He'll repay the fucking favor and get revenge, or he'll die in the attempt."

[willowandoak]

The part about not valuing your survival is less relatable. Ren's spent what feels like his whole life fighting to survive. But the rage... yeah, he gets that.

However. "Isn't Hamlet a tragedy?" He might not know much about Shakespeare, but he has a feeling he can guess where this is going. Or maybe he's mixing it up with another one...

[captainkurusu]

That comment cuts through the infodump, but not for very long. "Well...yes. Hamlet's new at this whole revenge thing, and he takes out a few people he didn't mean to along the way. Claudius uses those mistakes to manipulate one of Hamlet's acquaintances, Laertes, into killing Hamlet in a way that won't implicate the king. Laertes baits Hamlet into a supposedly friendly sparring match, but swaps the blunted sword he's supposed to use out for a real one he's poisoned. Hamlet realizes he's been betrayed once he's been cut, wrestles the sword away, and stabs Laertes back, at which point Laertes realizes Claudius has played them both. Laertes confesses the whole plot, asks Hamlet to forgive him, and urges Hamlet to take his revenge for them both. Hamlet murders the king with his own poison, and he and Laertes forgive each other for their mistakes. Then Hamlet dies peacefully in his best friend's arms, secure in the knowledge that the man who ruined his life is dead and that Horatio won't let his memory be slandered. The world will know the truth of Claudius's deeds--and Hamlet's deeds, as well."

Akira's tone is wistful, and he gives a sheepish little shrug. "There are worse endings. For a Shakespearean tragedy, he came out far better than most."

[willowandoak]

"Huh." He reflects on all of that for a moment. He felt a kinship with Hamlet at first, but now he's thinking maybe he's more of a Laertes, and Claudius isn't Shido but Yaldabaoth...

"That's barely even tragic," is his conclusion. "I like murdering the king with his own poison, though. I bet it's streaming somewhere. —uh, that means I bet there's a version of it that I can play on a screen, if I can find it."

[captainkurusu]

Akira isn't sure what play on a screen means, but he'll pretend he does. "If you do, please let me know. I've only ever seen it performed once; I'd love to see it again."

He looks around, suddenly remembering where they are. "But I've gotten us both distracted, haven't I? My apologies."

[willowandoak]

"Oh." Ren blinks. "Yeah, I forgot. Welcome to my home, I guess? Though not really anymore, I moved out." ...Fuck. It's gonna be rough when he goes home and he can't just say stuff anymore. "If you want a tour, we've got... endless fucking floors full of Shadows, which will all kill you in one hit. For floors without them, there's a lot of rest stops, and the real creepy floor at the bottom which has a giant ribcage-looking thing, and the extra fucked-up one where the false god would be hanging out if he existed here."

He eyes Kurusu. "But I don't remember what it's like being in here without a Persona. Maybe it sucks." That is to say, they can also leave.

[captainkurusu]

Please, Akira is tempted to scoff. Anything can kill a man in one hit if it's lucky or determined enough. Then he remembers the way Ren's Persona tore through a building as if it were nothing and wisely decides to keep that thought to himself.

"Far from it," he says instead. "I've been to far less inviting places--and in far worse company, at that. Giant ribcages, you say? Any idea what they might have come from?"

[willowandoak]

"Bro, I have no fucking clue." He pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through the Mementos rest stops. "The ribs aren't even placed like they're in real ribcages. They're just—here. Look."

He taps Door to Mementos Depths, and reality twists again, less dramatically this time. When it resettles, they're standing at the end of a wide central walkway in a freaky-looking room. The door, if you can call it that, waits at the end; trains arrive one on top of the other to either side; and there are, indeed, giant black ribs rising to either side of Ren and Kurusu.

[captainkurusu]

Well, how about that. Those sure are some freaky, giant ribs. Akira's eyes flit past them to the incoming subway trains, drawn to the eerie, glowing red of their windows.

"This god of yours has peculiar taste," he comments--then hastily adds: "In decorations, not people. His taste in people appears to be fine; it's the inside-of-a-sea-monster atmosphere I question."

[willowandoak]

Ren laughs at Kurusu's nervous clarification. The fucking cup's taste in game pieces is pretty hit-and-miss, in his view. Goro? Yeah, solid option, Ren can see the appeal. Ren himself, though? ...Actually, he's supposed to be a force of chaos or whatever, so maybe the tin can had the right idea there, too.

"He has the second-worst decor I've ever seen, for sure, but what's giving sea monster guts? Is it the kinda... red and dark blue colors? Or all the bones?" He glances at the alleged subway tracks beside them.

[captainkurusu]

"The bones, mostly, thought the darkness and red veins everywhere certainly add to the impression." Akira raises an eyebrow, gesturing at the outrageous--well, everything--around them. "But now I'm dying to know which one of your acquaintances has worse decor than this. I'm not sure if this place sets a high bar or a low one, but either way..."

[willowandoak]

"Oh. Shido." For a split second, something dangerous glints in Ren's eyes; then his mask reappears on his face, called back without conscious thought. He sighs and pushes it up under his hood again. "Do you have one of him? I know Lotus does."

[captainkurusu]

I should have expected that. Akira's teasing smile gutters like a candle going out, which should be answer enough. He nods anyway, stiff and grim.

"My first captain," he confirms quietly. "Still breathing, regrettably, when I saw him last. But I never saw much of his taste in decor."

[willowandoak]

Ren's mouth twists in a grimace of understanding when he hears my first captain. Once again, he's been there. But then the meaning of the words really sinks in.

"He's a captain? Like, a ship captain? That pus-filled blister on a dogfucker's cock is a real-life captain of a real-life ship?" He presses black-gloved hands against his face for a second. "Fuck me, dude. If it's named the Ark of the Elite, I'm gonna lose it."

[captainkurusu]

The sheer, unexpected vividness of pus-filled blister on a dogfucker's cock draws a snort of bitter laughter from Joker's lips.

"It was called the Statesman, actually, and I doubt he chose the name. Why?"

[willowandoak]

"The Statesman." He wrinkles his nose. "That's almost as bad.

"The reason I brought it up is..." How the fuck does he explain Shido's Palace to someone who doesn't even know about the Metaverse? "Okay. Fuck it. Palace crash course. So, as well as Mementos, the Metaverse has other dimensions tied to specific people who are especially fucked up. Not always evil, just fucked up. The real word for it is distorted. And those other dimensions are all centered on a different place in real life, except in the other dimension, the place has turned into something else. Cognition shapes reality in cognitive worlds. And these people have fucked-up cognition, so the reality in their hearts is warped, too."

This is probably making no sense so far. "So, like... I went into someone's Palace once, right. They were a yakuza, they did most of their business at a certain club. And they saw the club as kind of a marketplace, where they could sell anything, or buy it for the right price. So I went to the club, put the guy in the Nav. And I got sent to a different dimension, like we did a few minutes ago, but it wasn't Mementos, it was this guy's Palace. And instead of being outside a club, I showed up at the edge of a marketplace that traded... things." A shadow passes over his face. "That Palace was extra twisted. But do you see the concept, kind of?"

[captainkurusu]

Things, huh? From the description--and Ren's hesitation--Akira gets the strong impression those things were people. Swallowing a grimace, he nods.

"So a Palace is based on a place where the person considers himself to be most powerful, but rather than matching the place, it matches the self-serving way the person views it. Or it can be like that, at least, for the right sort of villainy. Yes?" He feels fairly confident in that deduction. Of the next, he's completely certain. "I take it Shido's was a ship."

[willowandoak]

"Yep." He lets the p pop. "The Diet Building—uhh, the building where lawmakers meet. Statesmen." He scowls for a second. "It's a ship, and Shido's the captain who's steering it. You get in the Palace, and the fucking thing is sailing over the ruins of Japan. That's why it's called the Ark of the Elite. Because all the fancy rich motherfuckers who lick his boots get to be on it while the rest of us drown."

[captainkurusu]

"How ironic." His humor is a cutlass now, with an edge sharp enough to cut. "Your Shido is a daimyo who fancies himself a captain, and mine is the other way around."

The daimyo or the captain. I wonder which version would be worse.

"It may please you to know that mine no longer has a ship. My crew saw to that the last time he tried to kill me. No doubt the Company will give him a replacement, but for now, he's an impotent dogfucker's cock. Which is better than nothing, I suppose."

[willowandoak]

It does please Ren. He grins, eyes glinting.

"Too bad they couldn't drown him. When I get home, I'm gonna take care of Shido's Palace, too. I hope it fucking explodes." Since someone won't let him just kill Shido and be done with it.

The last time he tried to kill me, though. That's Ren's future, if he and Goro can't pull off their plan when they get home.

[captainkurusu]

"I hope so, too. I wasn't able to help detonate the damned tub myself, but watching it go up in flames is a memory I'll cherish to the grave."

Akira grins back. "I haven't given up hope on killing him, either. I found him once; I can find him again, this time with better preparation."

And without Goro standing in the fucking way. Not that he's bitter about that, or anything. It's fine. Water under the brig.