1/11 training and breakfast

[citta]

[ As last minute prep for the dungeon, everybody has been called to get together for a training session during midnight at Lockdown, with promise of a light breakfast at the clubhouse afterwards and the suggestion that people take it easy during the day before they split up into their respective teams and head to the castle and the mountains.

Training is largely done in the school shrine, on the second floor where there's wide empty space without the maze to account for, where you can practice tactics together, or take on the Minato challenge where he has Messiah blast you apart in half a second and then immediately heals you and asks if you want to go again.

Breakfast at the clubhouse is split between western and traditional styles, whether you crave fluffy pancakes, or are more of a miso soup and grilled fish on rice sort of person. If you want anything in particular for lunch, Kido is on lunch duty and promises to make whatever you want, so long as you go out to the store and bring the ingredients back.

Thanks to everybody's efforts so far during the month, whether it's interacting with the townspeople or talking with the mayor or donating gemstones to the mountain shrine, the effects can already be seen around town, with the townspeople less wary of the Persona users, allowing them to purchase what they want in the stores if they want to have their own supplies to take into the dungeon later.

Now go out there and get along and learn to work together or is2g ]

Comments

[parhellia]

[ This is how Toki's self-fulfilling prophecy of becoming a quack psychic begins. ]

Okay~! The basis of it's really simple! You ask the cards a question, and then choose three. The first brings up elements of the past that might be holding you back, the second card focuses on a present problem, and the third offers guidance on the future. My deck has twenty-two cards, one for each Arcana. Do you know much about them?

[yokeye]

[It will happen in one game somehow.]

Past, present, future. That's easy enough, because they're in the right order~!

[Despite being here for a few months, doesn't know what an Arcana is to begin with.]

I know there's twenty-two~!

[parhellia]

[ It's a good start!! ]

Yep, there's twenty-two! It starts from number zero, which is the Fool, and ends at number twenty-one, which is the World. In order, it's sorta like describing the stages of life, from a fool who doesn't know anything, and they go out and learn all these new things, and at the end of their journey, they understand their place in the world.

[ She fans out her cards to find the Fool, so she can have it out in front of her even though it's pointless, in Toki's point of view. ]

The Fool is the beginning card, like starting new and having a blank slate~ A Fool has no ties, and does what they want because of that. Akira is a Fool. Can you see that in him?

[yokeye]

[Toki is listening intently, but he already has issues with this. He waits until Ala's done before first addressing the Akira question.]

I can't see that in Akira because he does have ties and that's why he wants to go home.

[He admittedly does not know Akira very well. Now, back to his initial thought at her description.]

Can anyone understand their place in the world? Does anyone have one? The fool is the person who says yes. The fool should be number twenty-two and not zero.

[parhellia]

[ That's true about Akira... He starts off as a Fool, but he's a Persona protag whose gone through about three journeys now, so maybe it's about time he's graduated. ]

I believe people have a place in the world, but Akira's also called me a fool~ I don't think most people understand their place, though. It's not something you can really understand, unless you're some sort of priest or monk or something?

[ She finds the World from her set and puts it next to the Fool. ]

But you're right: the Fool becomes the World, and zero is also twenty-two. Souji used to be the Fool, did you know? But now he's the World. Minato was the Fool, but now he's the Universe. People change, because that's what people do. I wonder what Akira is now? I wonder if you're still Lovers?

[yokeye]

They change.

[That makes sense, because people never stay the same, even if pieces of them do. Even if you can still see the person they were, there are differences.]

Maybe I'm something different now, and Akira.

[He's getting a headache from all the thinking.]

It's too complicated for me.

[Toki will tell fortunes with a crystal ball.]

[parhellia]

Hehe, it's a lot to take in all at once~ It's easier for me, 'cause all the Personas have different Arcanas, so I hear about 'em a lot!

[ Maybe one day we'll bring back that school fortune teller so Toki can have a crystal ball. Maybe by then he can actually see it. ]

It's complicated 'cause people are complicated. The Arcana reflects who somebody is, so you can use them that way too. Who's somebody you don't understand? We can try to figure them out with their Arcana.

[yokeye]

[Ala's suggestion of learning about someone he doesn't know is completely ignored in favour of freaking out about it being possible to know someone from their Arcana.]

So there's only twenty-two types of people!?

[He looks horrified at the thought. Not of there being twenty-two general categories to shove people into, but of the thoughts that follow. Robots, clones, constructs of unreality.]

Nevermind! I need to go! I need to.. not think!

[He scrambles away from the kotatsu, and has no idea where he's going, but somewhere.]

[parhellia]

There's forty-four!!

[ She shouts behind him, because there's 22 Arcana but also there's the reversed side as well. Why do robots and clones follow this... ]

[yokeye]

That's not enough!

[Forty-four is still a small number out of the entire populace. The rest of them, therefore, have to be robots or clones of the original twenty-two forty-four.]

[parhellia]

Um. Forty-five! I forgot Minato is Universe!

[ World and Universe are separate things, despite both being 21. ]

Oh, and there's also Aeon! That makes Forty-six!

[yokeye]

[She keeps changing things. He's getting more confused. Can more Arcanas be added for the other real people? The Solar System? The Infinite Space? The Vacuum?

His thoughts are overloading. Toki twitches a little, and collapses to the floor; his brain needs to restart. He should not have come today.]

[parhellia]

[ Oh. Ala catches up to Toki and turns him over so he's lying on his side. ]

I forgot about the reverse Arcanas again, so my math is wrong. There should be forty-eight.

[ Toki, wake up... She'll wait patiently until he does, because she needs to correct her math. ]

[yokeye]

[Can Ala wait three hours? If she does, Toki will wake up, but he won't make any effort to get off the floor.]

[parhellia]

[ Toki sure is getting a lot of naps in today. Three hours later, he is still on his side on the floor, and Ala is curled up behind him so she can prop him up so he doesn't fall over. She's moved on from tarot cards to trying to get through one of Toki's romance novels, but she's having a tough time with it. ]

[yokeye]

[He was awake for three days straight. He needs many naps. Once Toki does move, it's to turn towards Ala and try to find her hand... to kiss it, because he thinks she's Rei, watching over him as she tends to do.]

[parhellia]

[ Sorry, Toki, but this isn't your sweetheart. When Toki moves, Ala's forced to sit up too or else she'll flop over onto her back, watching Toki reach out for... something. Not knowing what that is, she does take his hand, but keeps them on her lap. ]

Are you still half asleep, Toki?

[yokeye]

Ala!

[Toki is definitely awake now. He pulls his hands away.]

I um, yes! Sleeping too much!

[parhellia]

[ Ala laughs, putting the book away so she can flop over onto her back and stretch her arms high up over her head, as far as she can reach. ]

Mm~ Humans sure need a lot of sleep! Cats sleep about twenty hours a day? How much are you getting, Toki?

[yokeye]

[Sometimes, Toki thinks it would be nice to be a cat.]

I don't know. I just go to bed when Rei does, but I don't always sleep?

[He didn't get a fancy phone that will tell him what time of day it is when he gets up or goes to bed. He has no idea what time it is at any given moment, or usually even what day. Time is meaningless without numbers, and he's never thought to ask anyone to keep him informed of such things.]

[parhellia]

[ The cat life is where it's at, yeah. Toki is already close to it, going to bed whenever and sleeping however long, if that's what's going on here. ]

So you just... lie there? And do what?

[yokeye]

Nothing. Just... lie there.

[And think about random things. The future, the past, the meaning of life, is there a meaning...]

[parhellia]

[ Lie there and... do what?? The concept of doing nothing is kind of weird; thinking would have made more sense as an answer. ]

Sounds boring~ If you're sleepy, you should sleep, but if you're not, why not just go out and play?

[yokeye]

I...

[It's hard to explain. That contentment of just lying with Rei, even if he's not tired. Listening to her breathe and feeling her warmth against him. His brain may be awake, but he physically never wants to leave that spot.]

Sometimes... your body's tired, but your brain isn't?

[parhellia]

...Like when you're sick with fever.

[ All you want to do is be unconscious, but you're mind's racing at 234059839093 thoughts per second, and you just can't calm down. Or like the panic from before where your mind won't stop and all you want to do is lie down and cry.

These aren't great experiences to associate with lying next to the person you love. ]