personavelvetroomdr | o how gentle the rain can arrive

Ren follows Goro to the Dojima house, steps as sure and confident as he can make them with his heart pounding a bit louder than normal in his chest. Maybe he's nervous for this, so what? It's not every day you get to meet the alternate-reality-family your boyfriend found during his two-month timeskip that was only five hours or so to you. His head's still kind of reeling from the...everything, but he's rolling with the punches. Not like I expected things to be normal with us, he says to the part of himself that's maybe not-very-Joker-like and trying to shy away from everything.

Life comes at you fast, but Akechis ~~come faster-- well. Hopefully not, and Ren's not thinking about that right now, nope~~ throw curveballs at half the speed of light and expect you to catch 'em. And Ren isn't letting one slip by him yet! ...Even if this one might be aimed right between his eyes.

Ren squeezes his boyfriend's hand -- it's what boyfriends are there for, after all -- and readjusts his grip on the little...okay, large bag of gifts against his chest (hey, everything's free here, and he didn't wanna show up unprepared) as they come to a stop in front of the door.

He takes a moment, letting go of Goro's hand, for a once-over just to make sure he looks good, brushing invisible bits of dust from his jacket and readjusting his glasses. Then, with a nod to his boyfriend, Ren raises the hand carrying the pile of gifts to knock on the door.

It's showtime.

"Hey guys!" He calls out as his boyfriend opens the door, resisting the urge to run his fingers through his hair (for now). "We're here!"

> Say hello to Crow's boyfriend?

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"Interesting. I've clearly never given enough thought to what tree I'd be." More of a bird type, him.

"How's he settling in? Not too much mirror shock, I hope?"

Well, someone had to break the bird theme sooner or later. Besides, the literal child got to 'Hawk' first.

"I wouldn't say he's thrilled by variations of himself making up so much of the real population here, but it's not going completely poorly. It probably helps that I was here first, so he has an anchor." And together, they can conquer anything.

(She hopes. Things at home are going to get interesting, but she thinks they can navigate it regardless.)

"He did show up from about two months ahead of me, which is interesting."

"Really?" Because he gets the implications, of course; the games they play are too large for them to be funny.

"This is hardly the place for a detailed discussion—" he glances at Raven and Hawk, on the far side of the house—"but I hope things are going well?"

Whatever well means for them.

"Really. And he didn't mention me acting strangely or being unusually absent, which he would have noticed. No sign of Shujin hiring a counselor in that time, either."

Which is, bluntly, a relief. Haru still intends to double-check just to make sure, but since that seems to be this Maruki idiot's point of entry in most of the timelines that have to deal with him...

"Things are... certainly going, from the sound of it. But there's plenty of time to ensure they do go well. I may bounce some ideas off you later." But he's right - not here. Raven would be far too interested for his own good, and the literal children don't need the details.

"You're more than welcome. Drop me a text, later." He reaches for her bowl again, picking two kernels out this time with the same delicacy as before; he's living large.

"No Maruki sounds promising. Then again, perhaps it would be better if he was in plain sight. Two months ahead is July, yes, for you?" And he slips the popcorn into his mouth.

Wow, three entire pieces of popcorn. That's... mildly concerning, but she's also not quite sure how to approach this (she probably gently bullied Aspen out of the habit before it could set, if he were so inclined). So she says nothing. Much like other discussions, this isn't the best place regardless.

"I fully intend to double-check for his presence, but I won't complain if he's not a factor. We're going to be busy enough without that concern." Considering they need to both disentangle from the conspiracy and make sure they survive the experience... well. Hands already full without a benevolent dictator trying to make everyone happy.

"July, yes. Not quite summer vacation."

"Mm. July was a hell of a month, as I recall it." As in, he'd spent the second half of it implementing the first stages of the new, shiny plan to frame the Phantom Thieves for his own crimes, having failed to talk his bosses down. It had been around then that Okumura-san's father was brought into the inner circle too. "A vacation would have been a fine thing.

"You have a plan lined up, I take it, for when the newcomer steps through the door? Lots of smiles and eyelash batting?" It's not a jab; he bats his own at her, with almost exaggerated effect.

Yes, that new, shiny plan. Haru already wants to tear it to shreds. On the other hand, her father's already been in the inner circle.

He bought it with Haru's life.

Haru giggles. "I'll save the eyelash batting for someone I'd like to flirt with, I think. As for the newcomer... we'll see how he fares, I suppose."

... and his mouth collapses into a tiny pucker. Over on the TV, some orbs are bouncing around in Featherman suits, doing who knows what. He's absolutely fine with the prospect of the newcomer; he watches the orbs bounce.

"Surely at some point we must reach a critical mass. How many of us, after all, could there possibly be? And who'll be next? I'm not aware of anyone from my own world, for instance." As much as he could use Ren, right now.

Haru shrugs. "I'm not sure critical mass can happen until we actually fill up Tokyo, and I doubt there are that many real people to be dragged in here. The odds are rather against it."

She doesn't say he hopes he gets this kind of luck, as she suspects he'd deny there is any such person... but she's thinking it.

He absolutely would. Or would he? Sometimes he's not sure any more. "Yes, you get it. The fact there's so much space is itself alarming. The world codes suggest a planned population of less than ten thousand, but... in practice, it would become hellish long before that.

"Then again, sometimes I think the whole place is a bizarre form of wish fulfilment, and none of you are real. I think we've all thought that." Just for all of it to stop, even for a moment... he's thought that so often. Admittedly, he didn't picture a weird relationship with multiple versions of himself.

"No, it suggests there are fewer than ten thousand worlds this place is drawing from, rather than a specific number of people." Which may not make a big difference in the grand scheme of things, but it is a difference.

"...I haven't thought that, but my 'real people' baseline has been broken for a while now. If anything, it's odd being around so many people who qualify."

"Perhaps. But something tells me we won't see too many from each individual world. Not given the population distribution so far. I could encounter my neighbour's dog tomorrow with a phone attached to its collar, for instance, but I doubt it."

He glances to her, though, remembering what she said on the ship when they met. "Yes, only Persona-users were real, wasn't it?"

"The human mind is far more malleable than any of us care to think about. Personas make it much more difficult to do that."

It's not foolproof, as the situation with Broken Goro shows - to say nothing of plain old manipulation tactics. But it's... difficult to remember that people without that sort of preventive measure are still people.

o how gentle the rain can arrive

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