personavelvetroomdr | [Closed] CW: discussion of potential violence

For a while, the outside world simply did not exist.

The only things that did were his workbench, the sterile glow of the monitors, the rhythmic scribbling of his pen against his clipboard. The hum of machinery filled the space, punctuated only by the occasional rustle of papers or the deliberate clink of metal instruments being set down. This—this was where he could simply be, where the doubts, the judgments, the cruel realities of the world beyond these walls faded into white noise.

Maruki absentmindedly adjusted the cuff of his white lab coat, the fabric slightly bunched over the grey turtleneck he had thrown on earlier that morning. His focus was locked on the project in front of him: a pair of glasses, sleek and unassuming, but with the potential to be something far greater. A prototype of sorts—an attempt to perceive what shouldn’t be seen, to understand what had long been beyond human comprehension. Something that, if successful, might just help Morning.

Or, at the very least, it would be a step forward.

He exhaled through his nose, flexing his fingers before reaching for the glasses—

“Azathoth, where’s the testing sample?” He didn’t even bother looking up as he asked, his tone absentminded but expectant. The response came swiftly, as it always did: a ripple of motion, the unmistakable slither of something in the dim light. He finally glanced up to see two objects held before him—one, the glasses he had requested. The other—his phone.

Maruki frowned.

Someone’s calling me?

No—*someone* had messaged him. And not just anyone—the newcomer. Ichinose. The one who had been flighty but sharp, someone who had made for an unexpectedly delightful conversation partner when it came to cognitive psience.

It had been ten minutes since she sent it.

His frown deepened.

Something happened.

A slow, creeping unease settled into his gut. It was one thing to be eager for discussion, to have questions, to want to dig deeper into the field they both seemed to love—but a direct message like this?

Maruki exhaled and reached for his phone, waving off the tentacle still holding the glasses. He straightened slightly, rolling his shoulders back as he pressed the call button. Whatever this was, he had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as simple as another theoretical discussion.

Still, when the line connected, his voice was as easygoing as ever.

“Ah, Ichinose-san! I wasn’t expecting such a quick answer—what’s on your mind?”

Ten minutes.

The first minute of having sent the message, Ichinose had practically hidden deep in an alley, back pressed against the wall as she caught her breath, staring and waiting for a response to appear on the screen or a call or anything.

But the clock was ticking right now, right? The man from the future was highly technologically advanced, and likely fully aware that she had just sent out a call for help via the Flutter network. She kept moving, half jogging as she looked at every impossibly high rooftop around her for any sign of that shadow again.

Bah - that wouldn't get her anywhere. Even if she saw him coming, he had a gun - she can't outrun a gun.

Five minutes. It's been too long, she has to get away from this place. Find her contingency. Ichinose made a run for the Velvet Room door.

By the time the phone rang, Ichinose had gotten back into the Velvet Room and was thoroughly reading and corroborating notes on the different Jokers. The damn phone going off nearly made her jump out of her skin - but she scrambled to answer it anyway.

"Maruki--?" Ichinose started, but cut herself off when she heard just how badly her voice had cracked.

~~Was she that frightened?~~ The reflexive scream really had done a number on her voice. Wow.

"Ahem. Sorry. You're Maruki-san, yes? You never stated, I just happened to infer-- at any rate, I'm afraid I'm urgently trying to find somewhere safe to go. You do have a Persona, yes?"

The call of his name paired with the crack at the end startled him. He blinked for a second, catching himself as he allowed her to try again. "I am listening," he quickly answers, just to let her know he wasn't leaving her hanging.

Nowhere safe to go.

Ah, great. That sounded terribly familiar in ways he wished it didn't.

"I do weild personas yes," he says affirmatively- not particularly caring about the mention of his name. "Where are you right now? Are you in danger?"

"I've backtracked to the Velvet Room - there's no gun to my head at the moment, at least," she joked. From the way her stomach clenched in dread, she wished she didn't.

"Though I am being tracked. I'm sorry in advance for asking for help and dragging you into this, I just don't think I have another option."

The velvet room was very easily accessible to anyone else at any given moment but...he could work with this. Yes. He really is up and about to leave the lab in itself as he frowns over the joke. He knew that feeling well—grasping at humor as a lifeline, as if laughing at the absurdity of it all might make it less real.

“That’s not good at all,” he said, his voice even, steady. “I’m really sorry you’re in this situation, but good on you for acting quickly.”

Still, tracked…?

Without another word, Maruki set his phone on speaker and held it up for Azathoth to take. As the entity's countless limbs moved to cradle the device, he made quick work of shedding his white lab coat, swapping it for a plain black hoodie hanging nearby. Practical, unassuming—he wasn’t about to go wandering the city in something that screamed scientist.

While he pulled the hoodie over his head, he kept his voice light, the same easy tone he’d use in his counseling office, the kind that made people feel safe even when they had no reason to be.

“You don’t need to apologize for asking for help,” he assured her. “Really—I can take care of myself.” He let out a quiet sigh, adjusting his sleeves before snapping his fingers as Azathoth rounded up the mess around him. "I’ll find you at the Velvet Room, yeah? Just hang tight and keep me on the line."

"You're doing me an incredible favor. I'm grateful," she answered, stepping back to take a screenshot of the board's notes for later. Hmm... annoying, but she probably ought to start using physical notes for a while.

He was shuffling around on the line, she could hear... so he was getting a coat on to come get her. Okay. Her chest still felt tight with adrenaline, but she was glad.

"I'm sure you'll make much nicer company than this strange bug-eyed man. Though he kind of reminds me of a doll - I could have worse company while I wait, I suppose."

Maruki's expression lightens a little at those words. "Just extending a certain someone's kindness that I was offered once," he answers truthfully. Without midnight...things would have been difficult. Perhaps not impossible but enough to be overbearing and suffocating.

Pulling the hoodie over his head, he grabs his phone and switches to his messaging app. To Morning.

"Bug-eyed..? Oh, you mean Igor!"

Maruki: I need to pick someone up. Be right back.

Just so that he doesn't overwhelm Morning, he's already shutting away any connection beyond the fourth floor.

With that he steps right into the elevator and adjusts the hood again- looking through the reflection of the door.

"He sure has a long list of things to speak of when it comes to his nose," he remarks idly.

"Don't underestimate him though. He listens and then meddles with your peace in ways you will find frustrating."

"Oh, of course. Never underestimate a doll, right?" Ichinose chuckled to herself, though she was starting to pace the room.

She glanced at the doors as she did, wary about any of them opening - the Shibuya door is likely where Maruki would come in from, but it's also likely where Zenkichi would arrive too...

It won't be long, Kuon. At least even if you do get shot dead, you'll reform here and Maruki is already on the way - it won't be more than a few deaths.

Edited (punctuation) 2025-03-14 23:39 (UTC)

"Never underestimate a doll...oh are you alluding to the fear of it? Pediophobia?" He is a little unsure about what she's really referring to or how deeply rooted that word seems to be in the grand scheme of things.

She did seem like the chatty type and while he did wish to ask questions about her wellbeing, he might as well just ask in person. No use fussing over injuries when conversation can prove to be a good distraction over it.

Hopefully Morning would cover under his absence. It won't take that long anyway, the velvet room does manage to cut off a lot of distance- more often than not.

The grand gates to his palace open as Maruki looks around then a fleeting anxiety follows through with it.

"...actually before you answer that- who attacked you? Just so that I can prepare for the worst."

Who attacked you?

Ichinose glanced at the board again. The notes from the Hasegawas were left unperturbed, and their posts on Flutter seemed to indicate they were rather liked and respected.

Hopefully this didn't open a can of worms or cause Maruki to hesitate, but...

"Zenkichi Hasegawa - the fellow from 2038. In his world, there is an Ichinose Kuon that is directly responsible for a lot of why his world is in the state it's in," she answered. "It didn't particularly matter to him that I'm from 2017. Or it only mattered insofar as I didn't have to get back to this room via getting revived."

Maruki paused for a moment, a tentacle now latched onto the jutting rooftops as he hauled himself up. Maybe he will get a taxi from there, distances were surprisingly cut short in the context of this world or how some areas were more active and easily percieved in comparison to others.

Whatever the hell that meant. He could guess somethings but more or less it seemed related to magic.

Or it only mattered to him so far I didn't have to get back to this room via getting revived.

"I didn't....wow, I didn't expect that out of him- he's usually more reasonable and maybe a little carefree in comparison," he blinks in surprise. He knows all too well about that world and what had happened to the Maruki there- Zenkichi specifically approached him to inform all about it. He wonders if the reason to it was...just as charitable as one would expect while approaching someone who has the potential to be a monster. "Even with-"

He stops.

Against all expectations, Maruki's expression twists into something more scheming. Right, this call is probably being tracked.

"...nevermind him for now. Are you injured anywhere? Bleeding? Missing limbs? Your voice suggests otherwise but- oh okay I think I am at the Crossing now."

Just took him 5 minutes. Easy.

"He only fired a warning shot at the ground, though I suspect it could have been a lot worse... he truly thought I could've fought back and nearly didn't believe that I don't even have a can of mace, let alone no Persona."

The crossing already, good, he knew how to move quickly in this place. Hopefully they wouldn't be out for very long.

I'll feel much more at ease once I'm with him.

She glanced at Igor, who was simply staring and smiling mysteriously. Strange creature.

"A bit of tinnitus at worst."

Ah, he remembers that feeling all too well.

He wasn't exactly...envious about Ichinose's position though he would have honestly preferred Tinnitus over what had happened on that day. He would much prefer that over having to see your closest confidant look at you like-

"That's not the worst part of it all, is it?"

"I'm not especially having fun with how my fight or flight response is still going off, no," she admitted, swallowing a bit as she approached the door she'd come in from once again. Just-- at the crossing.

"I'm coming through again. I'll meet you partway?"

"You did well in keeping your cool," he offered as any bit of consolation he could manage. "...past me could have learned a thing or two."

Maruki would shuffle and find himself standing amongst the crowd, a tentacle peering through with its long spidery appendage poking through. "I will be there standing in front of one of the bookshops." After fighting Fatalis, Maruki had especially started to gain clear control of his persona. Maybe getting involved in life and death situations was entirely crucial to making it here for whatever reason.

"Black hoodie. Dark brown hair. Spectacles."

Bookshops, right - right near the central street, she thinks she even knows which one he might mean based on where the door is.

Deep breath.

Through the door she went, jogging from it towards the central street. No ambush-- not yet? Maybe she was okay.

And then-- she saw him. Black hoodie, dark hair, spectacles - and a tentacle, looking for her. Quickly, she hurried to him, though she was openly gawking at the strange appendage. "That-- is that your Persona?" Her voice echoed through the phone speaker - she was a little too shocked and frazzled to realize she was still speaking into hers. "So that's what it looks like...!"

Maruki remained on the line, hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie as he scanned the street. Azathoth’s tentacle weaved carefully through the air, twitching and coiling around corners where it wouldn’t immediately be noticed—unless someone had an especially keen eye for details. It was always strange, feeling through it, seeing through it, like having an extra sense he wasn’t always sure how to process.

Then—movement.

Azathoth noticed her before he did. The moment she stepped into view, its spidery limbs curled open, shifting with an eerie kind of attentiveness. Maruki barely had time to register it before Ichinose’s voice came crackling through his phone—loud, startled, and very much still on the call.

He jolted, startled by the echo in his ear, and—

Oh, shit. His glasses slipped right off his nose.

"Ah—!" Maruki fumbled, catching them in one hand before hastily hanging up and shoving his phone into his pocket. He straightened up quickly, clearing his throat as he fixed his glasses back over the bridge of his nose. "Sorry about that. Didn’t expect you to still be—uh, talking into the phone."

He laughed, just a little awkwardly, as he finally took a good look at her. His left eye, faintly gleaming gold in the dim light, studied her carefully. She was staring—at him, at it, the shifting, otherworldly mass of Azathoth coiling around one of the building’s pillars like some ancient, lurking thing.

"But, uh, yeah." He lifted a hand, and the persona receded, folding itself back into the shadows at his silent command. "Azathoth answers to me. Bit of a presence, huh?"

There was something both amused and apologetic in his expression, the kind of smile that suggested he knew exactly how weird this was but hoped she’d roll with it anyway.

He shifted his weight slightly. "And you must be...Ichinose Kuon?"

"Fascinating," she agreed and hung up as well, already feeling much more secure. Completely closing the distance, Ichinose tucked her hair back into place from where it'd gotten a bit in her face from all of the running. Ugh, her hands were still shaking.

Not out of the woods yet... Zenkichi wouldn't be far.

Maruki seemed a little clumsy and jumpy in his own right, but he wasn't carrying a forbidden name and face for that frightening mangled man.

"That's right. I'm Ichinose Kuon - I never really realized how much weight that apparently carried, hah hah."

It wasn't really funny.

Maruki’s smile faltered just a little as he took in the way Ichinose tucked her hair back—her hands were still shaking. He knew that kind of humor, that laugh-it-off-so-it-doesn’t-get-too-real way of speaking. He’d seen it plenty of times before, in his office, in himself.

His expression softened, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he met her gaze and exhaled, offering a slightly withering look. Yeah, yeah. Real funny.

"Well, he didn’t exactly mention your name when he arrived here," Maruki admitted, keeping his voice steady, "but I can imagine he’s already setting off alarms everywhere. He approached me, too, when he apparently..." His jaw tensed, his usual lightheartedness dimming slightly as something bitter flickered in his eyes. "...learned what I’m capable of across multiple universes. I was one of EMMA's victims in his universe- whatever that meant. I know better than to try and attach myself to any other narratives.

"That was also while I was drinking alone, so I don’t want to sugarcoat it—he’s thorough."

There was a moment of quiet, but before the weight of that could settle too heavily between them, he shifted his stance, taking a brief glance around. No disturbances. No immediate danger.

"That aside," he continued, tone gentler now, "I don’t sense him or anyone else closing in. Maybe he’s got something else occupying him right now." He gave her a once-over, assessing—not for injury, but for the exhaustion, the way her body was still running on adrenaline. She needed time. A moment where she wasn’t watching her back.

"I’ve already booked a taxi to take us to my lab in Odaiba," he told her, tilting his head slightly. "But if you'd rather go somewhere else, I can cancel it. It’s free anyway."

Edited 2025-03-15 13:08 (UTC)

"Your lab sounds perfect - it's where you're spending your time, right?" Ichinose shook her head, grateful again and again. "In fact, I only got away without a bullet wound because I promised I would develop something for his scenario, so your prior mention of a supercomputer means I can have an excuse to settle in there besides the obvious. If he's able to reason, that is."

He definitely didn't seem likely to before, she's really not sure how she got out unscathed.

"Looks as though we've been maligned for actions neither of us has done, hmm?"

Maruki tilted his head slightly, crossing his arms as he considered her words. "Most of my time there, yes,” he admitted, though his expression shifted as he watched her shake her head—watched the way her gratitude kept folding in on itself, layered over something much rawer. Dismay. Frustration. Maybe even the lingering echo of fear.

He kept his spirit up for the sake of them both. If nothing else, they didn’t have to let things end this way—not for him, not for her. And besides...the fact that she was standing here at all, with only the ringing in her ears and the adrenaline still humming through her body, had to mean something. Zenkichi could have killed her. By all accounts, maybe he should have. But he didn’t. Why?

Maruki had seen enough second chances to know when one was being offered, even if it was wrapped in barbed wire.

His fingers twitched at his side, then absently moved to his pinky, rubbing over the faint green stain that had never quite gone away. It's been nearly more than half a year. A remnant of Azathoth, a faint ache of someone—though of what, he wasn’t even sure anymore. His mind flickered over the faces of those who had feared him on instinct, who had cast their judgments before they ever truly listened.

Corvus. Who refused to let him help, who instead lashed out the moment Maruki dared to dig into those buried memories for the sake of realizing his own. In the end, he had only reopened wounds, not healed them. His hatred had been justified. But what could Maruki have done? When Azathoth had acted beyond his knowledge—beyond his control—when there was no proof of anything at all?

Fawn. Who had swung that bat with the full intent to kill him. And for a moment, Maruki had nearly let her. Had nearly just closed his eyes and taken it. Maybe if he had—

But no.

He swallowed, blinking back to the present.

"Seems like it," he finally said, exhaling a quiet chuckle. "At least it trained me enough not to flinch when there's a gun pointed at my face."

His gaze flickered toward the street, scanning the traffic, as if that might ground him. He could already see the taxi making its way toward them.

"And besides," he added, his voice quieter now, almost wry, "there’s no proof of it, is there?"

No proof that this Ichinose had done anything at all. No proof that he was the same as the versions of himself people feared.

Edited (adding warnings ) 2025-03-15 17:06 (UTC)

"No proof at all. He searched all of my phone and all of my conversations but didn't find anything."

She shook her head again, smiling like she was Supposed to even as she was still so wired.

It could have been worse, but really, how much of that was supposed mercy and how much of that was her own quick thinking? Her careful dissemination of information? And a few half truths, a few lies?

"I'll be able to recount the conversation in a little while. It's still replaying a bit, with the adrenaline," she stated, mostly as an apology. "But I think there wouldn't have been anything I could have said or done that would've resulted in anything different. If I made a performance about disavowing my EMMA when mine doesn't function the way his is describing, if I disavowed any interest in cognitive psience, I'm quite sure he would have assumed I was lying to save myself in advance. I was doomed from the moment I set foot in here. So hopefully I can be useful enough to leave intact."

Maruki regarded her carefully, his concern obvious in the way his brows knit together, in the way his arms loosened slightly from their cross over his chest.

She was still wired, still running off the tail end of a near-disaster, and that smile—that too-perfect, too-practiced smile—wasn't fooling him for a second. He had seen people do it before. He had done it before.

He exhaled, slow and steady, before shaking his head. "You don’t have to push yourself to go over it right now," he said, his voice gentler now. "You just went through something incredibly stressful. Give yourself a moment to breathe first."

It wasn’t lost on him how lucky she was to still be standing here. The fact that Zenkichi hadn’t shot her on sight—or worse—was something of a miracle. Reasonable? No, Maruki wouldn’t call him that. But given what he himself had faced, given how things could have gone... maybe there had been a sliver of restraint there. A moment where things didn’t spiral entirely beyond control.

He sighed and reached into the pocket of his hoodie, fingers brushing against something familiar. With a slight shake of his head—half exasperated at himself, half amused—he pulled out a small, half-finished box of matcha Pocky, tearing it open with one hand before holding it out toward her.

"Here," he offered. "I don’t know if it’ll help, but—well. Something sweet can sometimes take the edge off after a bad shock."

"Oh, thank you," Ichinose laughed - it was a bit performative, but she wasn't thinking very hard about the 'right' way to display appreciation. She just plucked a few of the cookies out, nibbling at them. "He'd caught me right outside of grabbing some bento out of the 777, but I've forgotten about feeling hungry. A little sugar will help me keep my head on straight."

Nothing like some calories to keep the brain fueled, right?

Despite herself, she kept glancing out of the tinted back windows, scanning the rooftops for signs of that electric blue or that dark shadowy shape. Maruki said he didn't sense anything, but even so...

1/2 Location: Leaving Shibuya Central Street (10 mins later)

2/2

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tw: murder and sort of suicidal thought

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