foolishjustice | Private communications

foolishjustice

Moshi moshi!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

biddentodance

[He pauses a moment, then nods.] Orpheus first. The other right after.

[This next part, he's even....even more hesitant to say. It would've been fine if it were like Chidori's. But things are different and he doesn't understand, and he's...afraid that his lack of understanding is going to do worse than it already has.]

Can't control it at all.

From:

foolishjustice

...I lost control of Loki, in the city, so you're not alone in having a dangerous power. But, not at all? That seems strange...even with Loki, he didn't do anything until I summoned him. Has it spoken to you?

From:

biddentodance

[His head jerks up. Lost control....lost control. There's something like claws around his heart.]

Are you alright? [He knows the answer to this question. He'd asked Akira, the dungeon was weeks ago, Akechi has been fussing over several sick people. He's alright, more or less.

But it doesn't stop the concern overshadowing his internal dread.]

From:

foolishjustice

I'm fine. It was painful at the time, but there was no lasting damage...to me, anyway.

[...He can't help but wonder if Minato noticed, while helping take care of Shido's fever, that there were some fresh scars there.]

From:

biddentodance

[A sigh of relief.]

Wasn't there, but...got filled in. SEES has enemies - Persona-users who can't control theirs. Have one in custody. Her Persona summoned itself and started strangling her.

[He doesn't like imagining the scene, it gets....too close to uncomfortable things. He'd have frozen if he had been there, he's sure.]

From:

foolishjustice

[As soon as Minato mentions strangling, Goro's face goes pale. He swallows hard, then pushes on, trying to pretend it's not obvious from his face that something there hit on a traumatic memory.]

Loki didn't attack me. He was lashing out because I was denying part of what created him, but I think the effects on me were just incidental.

From:

biddentodance

[He sees that response. His heart sinks. He....really shouldn't have started this conversation. There's a pause while he thinks, concern and worry evident in his expression - plain as day, even, a rarity for him. He won't press, and he won't bring that up again.]

Use drugs to control theirs because they're artificial. Don't know the details.

[...he...doesn't want to talk about the Black Persona, doesn't want to talk about the dream, especially doesn't want to talk about the beach. Especially not when he might just....say something that hits Goro wrong again.]

From:

foolishjustice

[Whatever it was about it that got to him, it's lingering enough that he's still pale. But he doesn't have any intention of going into it...]

But that's not the case with yours, right? I'm guessing it's more like what happened with Loki, except you don't know why that Persona won't listen to you.

From:

biddentodance

Don't even know what it is. Never there in the Velvet Room. Like it doesn't exist until it's--

[...destroying something. Or someone. He remembers it's roar, thinks he remembers Aiden fleeing...]

....

From:

foolishjustice

[He frowns, thinking something over.]

...I wonder. It doesn't come up much, but I have the ability to see people's souls. Yours has something...connected to it. Something that was recovering while you were unconscious for a while. I think whatever this is, isn't a typical Persona...it's something else that relies on your energy to sustain itself, and acts on its own when it thinks you're in danger.

I was a little concerned when it drained you so thoroughly after exerting itself, but if it can do more than just cause temporary exhaustion...

From:

biddentodance

Something....connected? [To his soul? How? Since when? Is that even possible? It doesn't make any sense - but then, it isn't the only thing in his life that doesn't. And it's true that both the Magician and Aiden had posed significant threat, not that.... Minato cared about that at all...]

When I Awoke, it tore Orpheus apart from the inside before he could do anything. Utterly destroyed the Shadow attacking the dorm. Then I blacked out....woke up in the hospital a week later.

[The symbolism involved in the two Personas isn't lost on him. He hadn't given it any thought, figuring it wouldn't matter if anything happened to him, but....if the Black Persona is going to hurt people, then....]

From:

foolishjustice

I noticed it when you first got to the station, but I haven't known what to make of it. I'd have to look closer in ways that...are honestly quite intrusive, if I want to get more details. But if it's going to knock you out like this every time it feels the need to intervene, not to mention the possibility of it making a mistake...

From:

biddentodance

[It...feels weird - feels wrong - to seek out something like this. It's not important, doesn't matter, it's just Minato's own problems. Except that isn't true anymore. It hurt Aiden severely. Next time, what if--

There's a hitch of his breathing, a shudder. He shakes his head lightly, more to himself that Goro. He doesn't need to think back to the bridge. Not right now.]

Do what you have to. [He doesn't care.]

[Except he does.]

From:

foolishjustice

[He nods and closes his eyes, extending his spiritual senses. Minato's thoughts appear on the edge of his awareness, but they're not what he's looking for...and he'd rather not intrude if he doesn't have to.

Instead, he focuses on the hitchhiker, looking at both thoughts and the data of its own Soul composition.]

From:

biddentodance

[The fact of the matter is that the extra is thoroughly entangled with Minato's own soul - not completely, but what it has of an individual soul...seems to be at least in large part taken from him. Whether it's by actually taking some of his soul or more like a xerox copy is difficult to say. There's something obfuscating the view, too, like looking through fog.

It is both alien and familiar. Inhuman, powerful beyond words, beyond understanding, and yet not foreign. It seems at times solid and others like several large pieces. And it hides - hides behind Minato's soul, like a child hiding behind an older sibling. And if it were to take a human form - it would be a child. A boy, maybe about ten years old, wearing prisoner's stripes.

He seems shy. Nervous, even perhaps afraid, though still curious.]

From:

foolishjustice

It's okay, I just want to know what you are.

[The words are said aloud, though not directed at Minato. The next ones, however, are.]

It definitely has a consciousness...he feels almost like a child. Not human, but not too far removed, either. I think he's intimidated by the fact that I can observe him.

From:

biddentodance

[The presence peeks out, then shrinks back again. He doesn't know. He doesn't remember. Who is this?]

A child...? [...Wait. Wait, there's a child left unexplained.] Pharos...?

From:

foolishjustice

Pharos, is that your name? I'm Goro Akechi, a friend of Arisato-kun's.

From:

biddentodance

[Pharos is his name... Minato is his friend, too. He's never met anyone else before.

Pharos's face and voice aren't unlike Minato's own. Younger, certainly, but he really could pass for his younger brother...or possibly for his younger self.]

.....you can speak to him..... [It's more to himself - almost disbelieving. Pharos has never appeared to anyone else.]

From:

foolishjustice

It's because I'm a sort of...manager of the afterlife. I have some extra senses regarding souls. This one...appears to be quite heavily damaged. He's used yours to repair his own, though...I can't tell for sure if it's a partial merge or if he's just copied parts of yours into the empty space.

[His tone softens as he turns his attention back to Pharos.]

You heard that, right? I have special powers that let me see things that don't have bodies of their own. Have you been trying to protect Arisato-kun?

From:

biddentodance

Afterlife? [So...the dead. That's not too surprising. But it's worrying. Does that mean...] Is he...dead?

[Pharos...isn't sure. He's been doing what he can. Warning him, every time he remembers something. Because they're friends.]

[Minato doesn't like the implication that Pharos is connected to the Black Persona. And it is still only an implication, right? He...he'll have to explain what he knows about the boy, won't he.]

From:

foolishjustice

Not necessarily...it means he's a soul without a body, that's all I can be sure of.

Can you hear him right now? Or do I need to pass his words along?

From:

biddentodance

I can. Can see him, too. Was the only one who could, until now.

[He's just been letting Pharos focus on the new person. It's....well, like Pharos said, he's only ever known Minato before.

Pharos confirms this is the first time he's appeared when Minato wasn't alone. But he's always with him.]

... [There's more he could say.]

From:

foolishjustice

So, you've seen everything Minato's been through? Do you know anything about the dangerous Persona?

From:

biddentodance

[He's never seen it directly, and to be honest he doesn't know much about it. He only knows that it's stronger than it used to be. He...doesn't like it.]

Stronger...? [But he's only summoned the thing twice, neither time intentionally. And it was already strong...]