and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

[externalcombustion]

...This is not Ann's beautiful balcony.

She was trying to go out there for an evening smoke - the cigarette's still in her hand and everything - and suddenly she's surrounded by blue and there's a weird old man trying to tell her everything is perfectly fine.

"I'd better not really be absent, or Akira's going to have concerns."

Form bonds? Well, that part's no weirder than the last few days have been.

Before going outside to continue with that smoke (she's not rude), she stops to examine the board. She... has no real idea what the Persona business is about, but it sounds like maybe a less direct kind of magic than what she got after she was visited? She also has no idea why anyone would want so many of that TV detective guy around.

Once Ann's taken in all she thinks she can there, she's off through the Tokyo door, lighting her cigarette as soon as there's open air for the smoke to dissipate into. (The keenly observant will note that she doesn't use or put away a lighter in that process.)

Comments

[wipingallout]

"Damn... I already used my 'let me try one, I've never had a cigarette before' excuse," Hamuko chirped from near Ann.

If she caught anything subtle, Hamuko hadn't indicated it - instead she was standing there with a shopping bag swinging from a hand, looking amused. She'd just picked out the cutest orange cardigan that she was trying out now, but this other girl looked like she REALLY understood good fashion.

"Hi! My name's Hamuko. Did you come in through the Velvet Room?"

[externalcombustion]

"I mean, if you really want one, I'd be a giant hypocrite to tell you no." Even if she really wouldn't advise it for most people.

"Ann, nice to meet you. And... yeah, I guess I did."

[wipingallout]

"Naaah, hehe, gave it a shot and they're pretty unpleasant. I'll find a new vice I'm sure," she joked, lightly. "Ann! That's a pretty name. Welcome to this strange little corner of reality!"

[externalcombustion]

"Thanks. I'm still kinda trying to get my head around it."

It's not the weirdest thing to happen to Ann in the last few days, but it's sure up there.

[wipingallout]

"It's definitely strange! Have you encountered the Velvet Room before? I think the fact that I knew Igor from before all of this," she paused, gesturing to the city around them, "is what helped brace me for the strangeness of everything."

[externalcombustion]

"No, never heard of it. How did you meet him?"

[wipingallout]

Hamuko made a 'magic' gesture, wiggly jazz hands and all, "In my dreams!"

After a beat and a laugh, she clarified. "At least, at first. Then he gave me a key to the Velvet Room... I could go through a door no one else could see to go see him and the attendant, Theo. It was very strange."

[externalcombustion]

"Yeah, that sure sounds it. But no, I haven't seen anything like that."

Just a mechanical angel the size of a building.

[wipingallout]

"Well! Do you know where you're settling in, yet? Not paying rent means the world is our oyster for now!"

[externalcombustion]

"I hadn't really gotten that far yet," Ann admits. "I was thinking about maybe scoping out my apartment, but who knows if that'd feel weird or not, you know?"

[wipingallout]

"No kidding!! Especially if you got used to knowing your neighbors, and suddenly they're strangers!"

[externalcombustion]

"Less the neighbors and more... I kinda sorta just moved someone in? It's still pretty new, so it might feel normal without them, but it also might not."

She'd bet not. Akira has a presence, that's for damn sure. (Apparently a pretty popular one, if the board's to be believed.)

[wipingallout]

"Roommates! That sounds pretty fun. Staying at school dorms has been the closest I've gotten to it so far, hah."

Hamuko's unsure what to think of this girl... she seems quite cagey. Far from the first person around here like that, at least?

[externalcombustion]

"They needed someplace to be, and it's not like my parents are around to care."

Ann's not even being cagey on purpose, just... guarded. It kept her safe. For a long time it's the only thing that's kept her safe.

[wipingallout]

"Well... I hear getting in here doesn't last forever, so hopefully you'll get to see them again soon," Hamuko assured. Parents, huh... "You'll have one hell of a wacky dream to tell them about!"

[externalcombustion]

"Hopefully. Akira would get a kick out of it - 'so there's this weird blue room with like eight of you in it for some reason.'"

Ann definitely won't be telling her parents about it. She hasn't told her parents anything since she told them a teacher kept staring at her and they did nothing.

[wipingallout]

"Hah! No kidding - what is the obsession with him and Akechi, right? At least that means less versions of 'us' floating around to argue about nicknames with."

[externalcombustion]

"True. Hopefully no one's claimed all the good fire-related ones yet."

It does help that whatever's going on with this Akechi guy, he apparently has a strong bird theme. But Ann would fight someone for a properly firebug code name if she had to.