Training

[vessel_ken_amada]

[Backdated to an indeterminate number of days ago. Context here.]

After the apparition of the training room and the elaboration of the schedules, all those part of the team to take down the evil Ken Amada are surely spending a lot of time in it. If you are one of those members, the question is... what are you doing in there?

A. Solo training

There are plenty of reasons to train solo. Maybe you are building up stamina so that you can have your Persona summoned at all times. Maybe you are working on your defenses. Maybe you are trying to get one of your Personas to make you fly. One thing is for certain: there is a lot to do!

[Toplevels using this prompt are ideal to invite anyone to join your character, maybe even with their own subprompts so people can walk in on different kinds of training!]

B. Sparring

Combat readiness involves, well, actual combat. It is not surprising to see team members spar with each other to ensure they are in top form.

[You can have open toplevels to invite anyone to spar, or you can lock them to specific characters.]

C. Training with Ken

Everyone on the team has scheduled training sessions with Ken, to be able to see and learn how to face the deadly abilities he shares with his evil counterpart.

[These ones are necessarily closed threads. You can come solo or in small groups of characters, indicate this in the toplevel.]

Comments

SECRET DOOR NUMBER 3

[pancakeboy]

We have a situation. Meet me ASAP.

[Fuck you too, Drake. He assumes he doesn't need to (and shouldn't) specify "in the training room".]

[willowandoak]

k

ASAP is very soon indeed. He shows up after just a couple of minutes, his overshirt somewhat rumpled and his expression harried. He meets Magpie's eyes expectantly. He took the message seriously; this had better be good.

[pancakeboy]

Magpie turns to greet him, such as it is. For all his barely-veiled hostility, there's something else there too. Chagrin, almost.

"Thanks for coming." It's cursory politeness. "We have an issue with Falcon. I take it you've been monitoring him."

[willowandoak]

Ren is already sighing as soon as Falcon's name comes up. Since it's Magpie, he doesn't say more than, "Yeah, I have. What's going on?"

[pancakeboy]

Fucking Drake, sighing as if Falcon's some kind of inconvenience. Magpie says nothing. At least, nothing other than....

"He has a dungeon. In the Inaba TV world."

[willowandoak]

...Ren resists the urge to press his hands against his face. The dungeon explains a lot, actually. You'd think it would make Ren more sympathetic, too, given what he went through here, but the extra understanding fails to materialize.

Okay. Okay. This is barely anything, compared to some of the other shit he's had dropped on him over the course of the mission. First question first. "Can he still use his Personas?"

[pancakeboy]

"Oh, he can use them." He might be discussing the weather, if the weather had him really pissed off, and set on not showing it. "In fact, he's doing nothing but use them. He's obsessed with training for this mission. It seems as if he thinks of nothing else."

His mouth twists, despite himself. Who is he to condemn Falcon for how he's reacted? "He's not open to communication. Without wanting to be sentimental, I feel it's—important that he's part of this mission. But if he can't take instruction...."

[willowandoak]

"It's not about sentiment," Ren says restlessly. "If I drop him from the mission, he goes to challenge Amada on his own, maybe blows up the mission, definitely gets himself killed again. It's a huge risk. If I thought he'd just sulk on his own, I might have done it already, but as it stands..." He gestures with one hand. "The risk of keeping him on has to be bigger than that for me to kick him.

"Do you have a reason to think he won't take my instruction? 'cause that's not the same as if you tried to get him to do something."

[pancakeboy]

Frankly, if Magpie couldn't get Falcon to listen to him, he'd like to see Drake fucking try. He can't summon a smile. "If you think you can make him listen, then by all means try. He knows I'm here."

Drake is right, though. Magpie knows what obsession can do. The mission is sustaining Falcon, right now, deafening him to everything else. Removed from the team, he'd be even more of a ... well, call it a loose cannon.

[willowandoak]

"I'll test it," he says. "Not right now. When we do group training. He's more likely to realize it's a test now, if I say something right after you tell him you're talking to me." He is a little annoyed about that, yeah. But he moves on.

"You know him; would it help to have him around people he gets along with when we fight? ...Who even are those people?"

[pancakeboy]

"Myself." Which is why I gave it to him straight, you piece of shit. "Raven. Rose and Lyssi, who aren't involved. And Crow's Shadow. Those are the ones I know of. As to whether it would help..."

He doesn't exactly sag, but something shifts, something that veils his hostility further. "I wouldn't be talking to you if I'd been able to get him to listen to me."

[willowandoak]

"I don't need him to listen, I just need him to remember you exist. Would it hurt, to do that? 'cause if not, I might try it anyway."

Like, why not, at this point? If it doesn't hurt, and it might help?

[pancakeboy]

He doesn't want to get into this. But he pictures Raven's disappointed face. And Crow's, and even Crow's Ren, and—well, he's not sure Hiro can be all that disappointed for long. All of them in danger, if he doesn't commit.

"Unless something changes, I suspect my proximity would be—counterproductive. And putting Raven in that position is...."

He breaks off. His instinct is still, far and away, to protect Raven. But if the kid isn't to become a true member of the team now, then when?

[willowandoak]

"Is it worse than not doing anything about Falcon and just hoping for the best?"

The question is genuine. Ren is fully in leader mode, barely even thinking about the fact that it's Magpie he's talking to. If he stopped to notice it, he would be so unnerved that it would fall apart, but he hasn't yet.

[pancakeboy]

Indeed, Magpie shoots him a half-hearted ugly look, not trusting the ground he finds himself on. He answers reluctantly.

"If anything will remind him of his humanity, Raven will. Right now, though, I'd say that if you were to give Falcon an order he doesn't like, he'll ignore it. He's bent on proving himself and, though he doesn't have a Palace, he's behaving as if he does."

And yet leaving him out of the fight would destroy him. Magpie has contemplated far worse betrayals, but this one hits home.

[willowandoak]

"That's not... the worst." Like. It's pretty bad. But it definitely could be worse. He looks thoughtfully into the distance, tapping his fingers restlessly against his leg. "I can just put him in positions where he gets to prove himself and beat the shit out of Amada, and maybe it'll be... manageable, anyway. I'll watch him in group training to make sure it'll work. But I'm gonna be real, dude, I don't wanna bench him unless I know for sure having him on the team will seriously endanger everyone. 'cause I'm pretty fucking sure benching him will put everyone at risk, too."

[pancakeboy]

"You're not wrong." Bile rises, twisting uselessly in different directions, with no outlet. For some reason, he wants to run.

"It isn't an issue of sentiment," he adds, more smoothly. "If he's removed from the team, he may do anything. He might well alert Amada at once, getting himself killed again, or worse. He might get all of us killed. I just—"

He breaks off. What's wrong with him tonight?

[willowandoak]

Ren waits, neither sympathetic nor judgmental. It probably wouldn't have been possible before his Palace, or before he ended up responsible for the safety of every single person in every reality. But now there are, in fact, more important things at stake than his opinion of Magpie. If Magpie has something to say that can impact the mission, he wants to hear it.

[pancakeboy]

But it's not relevant to the mission, and saying it would just make him look pathetic. I just wish I could have made him hear me, really? To Drake, of all people?

He looks away, confecting an alternative. "I just think his presence will make the situation more unpredictable all around."

[willowandoak]

"Yeah." There's no way that's what Magpie was going to say, but whatever. "But so will not having him around. If you have any ideas about how to make the risk smaller, I'm listening."