IC INTRO - JUNE '18

[phantasmods]

After the fight with the siren has settled, those characters with phones hooked to the KEystone network will get a text -

Okay, everyone, you had better come back in. There's a storm brewing just off the coast.

Even given Up's usual professionalism, it seems rather... subdued?

----

For once, there are no androids at all to greet you upon your return, or arrival, as the case may be. A shelter has been set up for the boats on the shoreline of Glitterstone, however. By the time you tromp up the lighthouse stairs to the level of the Station itself, the sky is beginning to grey with the promised storm.

There's not the typical feast outside, but there is a fairly extensive taco bar set up in the common room, left unattended as well. The room sign-up sheet and boxes of freebies are also there, complete with the Braille versions, and a note at the bottom of both room sheets reads "If all rooms are full, space has been made in the meeting rooms on the top floor. We'll have additional rooms available as soon as possible."

It does appear that someone has updated the murder counter while you were away, however, for the turning of the week. It now reads 15 weeks without murder.

Other than that, you're free to explore, including in the newly finished sections of the Annex (should you be willing to brave the storm to get between buildings). However, wherever you go, the androids are almost conspicuously absent - even in the medical bay and Down's workstation in the command center.

The meeting room they have for their own private use is securely closed and locked.

Comments

[foolishjustice]

Supernatural powers are fairly commonplace here. There isn't really much reason to hide our abilities, and we tend to need them during missions.

We were much more clandestine back home.

[biddentodance]

So that's it... [They don't seem to be aware of any other hostile parties... So for now, he'll just stay aware. He'd really rather not get locked in a military bunker again.

Now for the other matter.] Didn't think things could change that much in seven years.

[foolishjustice]

Seven years? I'd known there was some time difference involved in these things, but that's definitely the largest gap I'm aware of.

[...Wait.]

Wait a minute, you said...seven years?

[That number seems significant to him.]

[biddentodance]

[That's an odd reaction to have... He straightens a little, though he is still petting the cat, something is up.]

September, 2009. [There was a huge typhoon, "the largest one on record", in September 2009.] I know they can manipulate time and space, but...

[foolishjustice]

That was before...

[He remembers the time everyone else saw it, and then it was as if it never happened, up until the first time he entered the Metaverse...that was at the start of 2010.]

So, is that why you were asking about the length of a day?

[He...almost sounds hopeful, if nervous.]

[biddentodance]

['That'... It's clear the other knows. How, Minato isn't sure - Akira had said he wasn't a Persona-users for long enough...but he hadn't actually mentioned it. It's possible to experience it before Awakening, if the potential is there...]

You know about it. [This is significant, and even through his fever his attitude...shifts, somehow. Less dazed, less uncertain, stronger, more hardened. A warrior.]

[foolishjustice]

...My mother died when I was six. For the next five years, every time I was awake at midnight, the world froze for what felt like an hour. I forgot all about it from near the start of January of 2010 until the first time I entered the Metaverse, where I Awoke to my first Persona.

[biddentodance]

[There...is quite a lot to unpack there, and he isn't at his best...it does stand out that Akechi has lost family, too. Just like Yukari...and Ken.

January....so that's when they finish it. It will end. Something seems off, but the important part is that it will end. But...he forgot? How could someone forget it...?

Minato's hands still, and he's quiet for a long moment.]

You deserve an explanation. We call it the Dark Hour.

[foolishjustice]

[The cat looks up at him when he starts petting and bumps his hand. Why stop?]

I see. I'm just glad to meet someone else who knows about it. They always told me I was making it up, or having bad dreams.

[biddentodance]

Yeah....I got that a lot, too. [So he just shut up about it and endured.]

It's happened every night without fail for the last ten years. Iwatodai's the source.

[foolishjustice]

So, if you're a Persona user, do you mean Shadows when you say 'them'? I don't think I ever encountered any during the Dark Hour, myself...

[biddentodance]

[Another nod.]

You're lucky. They hunt anyone who doesn't transmogrify. They're all over Iwatodai. [Most may be confined to Tartarus, but it's not like none are ever found outside...and it seems like more and more are escaping notice, with how the Lost multiply by the day.]

[foolishjustice]

I'd never left Tokyo before I ended up leaving my world entirely, so it's possible they're less common further from the epicenter.

I also didn't tend to go outside during Dark Hour, it was...a little much for an eleven year old.

[They also had no way of knowing he didn't have any way to take advantage of his potential yet, so there's also that.]

[biddentodance]

Pretty sure that's true... [He'd never encountered them directly, but he did know they were there. Not what they were, of course, but... He knew the monsters didn't live under his bed.]

Iwatodai has a...nest of them. Never seen anything like it anywhere else. [He doesn't have a lot of clear memories of those years, but he thinks he'd remember other structures like Tartarus marring the horizon.] Can tell you how it started.

[foolishjustice]

I'd appreciate that, but...maybe we should sit down first. You shouldn't be on your feet this much.

[biddentodance]

...Alright. [He'll concede that, he's running on fumes.] It's a pretty long story, anyway.

[Sorry, kitty, he's standing back up now. Gonna find somewhere with chairs.]

[foolishjustice]

[Kitty meows and rubs against his leg, still purring.]

We can sit on the couch in the common room, assuming nobody else is taking it up. If not, there's chairs at the glass table.

[biddentodance]

Let's go. [To the common room! Once we've made ourselves comfortable...]

...So...where should I start...?

[foolishjustice]

[The cat's going to just stretch out between them, making himself comfy.]

Why not with...whatever you know of just what the Dark Hour is? All I know is that time seems to be frozen, and most people transform into coffins. Not to mention...water looking like blood.

[biddentodance]

[Excellent. Perfect position for petting the purrer.]

It's a 'hidden' twenty-fifth hour. Only those with the potential to use a Persona can experience it and act freely. Everyone else transmogrifies...those who don't are usually found with Apathy Syndrome the next day, the result of Shadows feeding on their minds. Electronics and machines don't operate, so there's no way for ordinary people to learn of it.

[There are exceptions to these rules, but...that's the gist of what, exactly, the hour is.]

[foolishjustice]

['Shadows feeding on their minds'...his entire body goes tense at that, and he looks at Minato with...the kind of expression that makes it clear the description hit somewhere close to home.]

You mean, wild Shadows were preying on the Shadows of ordinary people, and causing that catatonic state?

[biddentodance]

[That's quite a reaction, and not one Minato can figure out. By contrast, Minato seems calm enough for surgery. They could be talking about the weather.]

Preying on the people themselves. Kurusu-san said you have some other world you fight in. We don't. [A pause.] What do you mean Shadows of ordinary people?

[foolishjustice]

[He's still looking a little shaken, even with the shift in subject.]

Their...Shadows. Their innermost selves, that represent the beliefs and desires they hide from the world. Didn't you hear yours when you Awoke?

[biddentodance]

No? [???????] Just Orpheus and....just Orpheus.

[Although that description sounds a little like a Persona...can't be, though.]

[foolishjustice]

If that's your original Persona, then that is your Shadow...just in a different form.

I'm...kind of surprised you didn't already know that, though. It seemed pretty obvious once I learned we could talk to Shadows and convince them to become new Personas.