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AUGUST EVENT PT 2

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→ 8/13-8/15 Obon Festival

Lanterns start to dot the streets, hung by the front door of each house who still have an able body to hang them. From there, the lights spread outward, neighbors visiting neighbors with lanterns in hand and prayers in their hearts that the light will be enough to guide the spirits of their ancestors home, enough to heal their loved ones and bring the health and energy back into town.

The first day of Obon passes in silence.

On the second day, the oppressive heat starts to lift, skies clear with a cool breeze that passes through the streets and rocks the lanterns at each door, which opens as people trickle out onto the street. By late afternoon, the entire town is alive with chatter and laughter, the townspeople bustling about to get their late start in setting up the festival stalls and the large stage set on the lakeside in front of the school. Some of the missing have started turning up again, with claims of having recovered from illness or returned from a trip, and more than that, visiting relatives are introduced to one another despite no car or plane ever seen entering or leaving the town. With most businesses closed for the Obon holiday, the second day is spent catching up with one another, making last-minute purchases and renting yukata, and finishing preparations so that both the spirits of their ancestors and those who have become well enough again may celebrate with all in full. By the end of the night, everybody has returned, the town restored.

Loud drumming can be heard the morning of the third day, taiko drum performances starting early and lasting late into the evening. The steady beat fills the air no matter where in town you are, but standing right in front of the stage, it can be felt in your chest, as if the entire town's hearts beat as one. Though less compared to during the tanabata festival, stalls are set up for Obon and largely consist of games and shops selling toys and trinkets, food stalls focusing on small treats rather than meals. With the taiko performance in the background to keep the rhythm, folk dances are held on the stage and in the parks and are open to anybody, participants being pulled in from the streets to join the circles to dance. Traditional clothing like yukata can be seen worn by almost everybody, from young children to great-grandparents, as they gather around the lake at sundown to say farewell to the spirits. Lanterns are lit and sent off into the lake, where they gather at the center and burn bright until there's nothing left to burn, and the town settles into warm, sleepy darkness.

When night falls and the townspeople begin to clean up, retrieve the lanterns, and go home, the breeze picks up a little, soft and cool, cutting paths throughout town much like the freezing gusts of winds that first Lockdown night. Rather than to the schoolhouse, however, the wind gently nudges you towards the forest, towards the edge of forest blocked by caution tape to keep people out of scorched earth and blackened trees. Only one lantern is left untouched, hanging on a tree branch just before this forest fire site, fallen trees cleared out to widen the path, that leads into the forest.

Soon, the full moon hangs high in the sky, shining its light straight down onto the castle ruins below.

→ 8/15 Castle Ruins and the Shrine

Carried along by the breeze that winds through the streets and blows down this path, finding your way through the forest becomes simple, and soon the trees part to reveal the castle ruins hidden away inside the forest -—at least, what used to be castle ruins. The changes come unexpected and instantly, in a blink of an eye during the day for those who still live in the castle, and a sight to behold for those who haven't returned in a long time until tonight.

Entering the castle reveals a repaired foundation and pillars which stand whole again, stairs to the second floor still broken but with all the rubble underneath cleared away, the air inside the castle no longer choking with dust. In the main hall, red candlesticks line the perimeter of the room, the glow of fire illuminating the murals that have shown up on previously blank walls, images faintly visible under a layer of yellow mildew. If you carefully scrub them clean, they depict a small village surrounded by farmland, a familiar lake at the center, flocks of crows adorning the skies with one large crow standing on the peak of the mountain overlooking the town.

At the center of the castle's main hall, a mother bear and two cubs can be seen snoozing in the middle of the room, sleeping next to a meter-by-meter square that has been cut into the stone ground. If you can get the bears to leave or are brave enough to approach without waking them up, you will see that hinges on one edge suggest it to be a door, but there is no handle and no way to lift the panel, nor can the door or the surrounding area be damaged no matter how hard you try. Upon closer inspection, there are four impressions on each corner of the door matching the size and shape of the ofuda received as a reward for defeating the dungeon boss, currently in RO's possession. Placing the ofuda on one of the slots causes the edges of the door to glow bright blue for a second before the light disappears, and the ofuda turns to stone, just like the door and the castle around them. Nothing more seems to happen after, the other three impressions remaining exactly the same.

All throughout the night, the candles burn along the perimeter of the hall, one hundred in total that cast the room in warm light. Whether you remember the fortune teller's words or are simply chatting with one another and catching up on all that's happened during your time here, each time a story is shared, a light blows out, leaving the castle dimmer and dimmer as the night goes on. The darker it gets, the more restless you begin to feel, Personas becoming more agitated and prone to lash out as the clock ticks closer to midnight. Those who choose to take a walk to the shrine to cool their heads find that the shrine looks different from before too, revealing unbroken steps, a thoroughly swept floor, stone lanterns whole instead of crumbled and broken, and the water basin filled to the brim with clear water that almost seems to sparkle in the moonlight— a far cry from how broken down the abandoned shrine appeared just a month before. There's still work to be done, however: in particular, the sign- restored and painted over in pure white so that it looks almost new- still displays no name. The paint is still a little wet, so perhaps somebody is just waiting for the paint to dry...

The night seems to drag on, but as long as people keep talking, no matter where they are in the castle or at the shrine, the candle lights continue going out until they count down to zero.

→ 8/15 Welcome to the Velvet Room

When the last of the candles go out and the castle plunges into complete darkness, a bright blue light begins to shine from beside the throne, taking on the form of a doorway set into the wall. Without fanfare, two figures step out, the taller with silver hair and a kind face, and the other with golden eyes that peek past long bangs to squint at everybody inside the castle. ...The latter immediately turns around back through the doorway to leave his partner to explain things to everybody here, who takes a seat on the throne as if he belongs there all along. If you have questions, come talk to this guy; but otherwise, there's nothing stopping you from going through the doorway to follow after the other one.

This isn't the only doorway that opens up: blue light shines between the pillars of the torii at the shrine, and similar doorways appear scattered throughout town to replace your bedroom door, the bathroom stall in a store you've run into for an emergency, set into the wall in an alleyway where there was no door before, even at the first floor of the school dungeon if for whatever reason you're there. Regardless of which door you enter, stepping through any doorway brings you into a small room, a bowl of fresh fruit and a bottle of some sort of non-alcoholic mixed drink in a bucket of ice sitting on the table in the middle of the room, two chairs flanking the table and a plush velvet couch against one wall. The ground shakes and rocks as you look around, curtains pulled aside to reveal inky blue darkness, spots of light floating past the windows out in the distance like stars. Each person arrives in their own room, a placard with their name and arcana set on the door labelling it theirs.

Down the end of the hall, the door opens up into a brightly lit lounge, wide windows set along the walls although the landscape outside remains as dark as ever. The lounge is filled with chairs and couches covered in the same blue velvet as the rooms and music seems to fill your entire being rather than just your ears. Passing through the door at the end of the lounge brings you to the conductor's cab where a young man sits, changed out of his costume into a more formal uniform in dark blues with a train engineer cap pulled low over closed eyes, slouched far back on his seat with his feet up on the control panel. Despite all that, however, the train simply zips along, the rail just barely visible from the front window of the cab. The attendant tilts his head your way, looking rather irritable, silent until you speak first.

→ MOD NOTES

⬥ As a reminder, characters are more likely to lose control of their Personas around the time of the full moon (8/15) but this can also occur at any time, especially with internal conflict and during Lockdown. This is an optional mechanic. Personas will also temporarily disappear once the character enters the Velvet Room.
⬥ The two Velvet Room assistants will have their own top-levels below for those who wish to speak with them in this log, and they may be contacted at the NPC contact page at any time as well. The NPC contact page will serve as an "IC inbox" for the characters to freely interact with the attendants to ask questions, receive and fill requests, hang out, etc. Please read this page carefully for more information about accessing the Velvet Room.
⬥ While each attendant may have individual requests for those who ask for them, they will also give tasks for the characters as a whole. These general requests will be listed on the NPC contact page at the beginning of each month. Successful completion of a request will earn characters rewards, and there is no time limit for completion.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ What's the point of anybody else training if Terry can just punt the Shadows out of the way and beat all the bosses? ]

Why?? Aren't I just calling you stupid half the time? 'cause you're always doing stupid things... But yelling and nagging, you shouldn't want to hear that stuff from me!

[ Maybe because one day there might be a null phys boss with 1hko moves... sounds like a nightmare. ]

Because it tells me that you're here.

[ hahaha... ]

So, you wanna go home? I'll stay with you until this phase is over at least.

[ Ichi, if you see this, please take note for next month's boss

Kido can't see his face, but Terry continues to sound happy anyways, it's just so stupid, incomprehensible, and it keeps reminding her of Rin who always accepted her no matter how much of a terrible messed up child she was. Because, Rin said, they were sisters. And for Terry and her... ]

No, I don't want to go back to that house. If I were to be blind forever, that's really scary. I'd only scare Suzume and Hayato, being like this around them.

[ Just sort of bumping into everything, blindly walking around with her arms outstretched, that's enough to worry anybody. But she thinks, once she's left alone in her room, she would cry, and that would worry them even more. ]

Well... alright.

[ Terry would hope that this is a temporary thing caused by an injury and nothing permanent. He probably wouldn't know what to do if he suddenly went blind either. It... would probably be a terrifying experience if he was alone. He wonders if him being here consoles Kido in any way--to experience with the other senses that she's not alone and that she could have someone to depend on to help her. ]

You know I don't exactly live in a house either though. So if you're okay with a bench...

[ He is definitely not going to suggest the forest lmao ]

[ It helps a lot, even though she doesn't say it. Just to have somebody to talk to, so it isn't just silence. Somebody to hold onto, so it's not like she exists in a void. The darkness reminds her of being in that place again— hell to her was having nothing at all around her, the feeling of not existing anymore, no longer mattering.

Like she'd completely disappeared, and it's scary.

So, ] A bench is fine. I just don't want to be alone tonight.

If you're sure...

[ After a few more shadows to punt on the way, he finally reaches one of the benches, but he doesn't want to sit just yet. ]

Do you want to sit up or lie down?

Are we at the park already? That was fast... Sitting's okay, though. I don't really think I'll be able to sleep, anyways.

[ ...She'd meant to say "I don't think I'll sleep, anyways," but that came out weird and she frowns a little. Maybe that bump on the head messed up more than just her eyes. ]

Alright then. I'm going to put you down on the bench now and I'll sit right next to you.

[ He warns Kido for that at least, because she needs to let go of his neck otherwise. It was nice while it lasted... He'll put her down on the bench and then plop down right next to her. ]

Do you usually not get enough sleep?

[ The warning's appreciated, over just plopping her down on the bench. She feels around for where the armrest is so she can keep that at her side to give her some more awareness of space. This whole blind thing really is annoying. ]

No, I get enough sleep. Usually, I miss the whole monster hour thing 'cause I'm asleep by then, but I really though this would be an easy way to get answers out of those two, if we humored them with these little quests.

[ Feathers? Cats? Surely they're just pulling everybody's legs here. Kido really doesn't like either of them, but they're the only new source of information they have, after waiting for so long. ]

Because these things like be something like that? I mean... why else would they go through the trouble of making us go on fetch quests? Though... I can't really understand much about them.

[ Hm. He stays silent for a bit but stays close to Kido to the point their shoulders are touching as a reminder that she's not alone despite his silence. ]

I don't think... they know too much though.

[ Kido shrugs, and leans against Terry a little more after her shoulders fall again. To her, Souji— since she's only met Souji, but probably Minato too by extension if he's really that guy's coworker— seems to be the sort of person who'd send somebody on a wild goose chase of a fetch quest just because it's funny to him. Because he knows they'd do whatever they can to get answers that he may or may not even have. Kido would have signed a demon contract with him, if it meant getting answers, but that didn't pan out in the end. ]

They know more than we do, which is something... Were you able to get a read on them at all? Or are they like that fortune teller at school?

I could get a read on them, which... I thought was weird. The reason why I said "not that much", was because it feels like there's a lot of holes in what they know. Memories...? It didn't look like they were suffering from amnesia though.

[ Well, he supposes that there isn't really a "look" that amnesia patients can have, but. Yeah. He looks up at the sky... that moon sure is bright in the midst of darkness. ]

I couldn't get anything other than what I knew already, but maybe I didn't search hard enough.

Hm...

[ She's realizing now that she doesn't really know the specifics of how Terry's power works, but if it's a person who can be read, but has holes in their memory, it's probably just that they're purposely blocking something out, right? ]

They have to know something. [ but, it's said more to convince herself, than as a statement of truth. ] What about blackmail? Can you tell that sort of stuff? Something to get an upper hand. I know that Souji guy hates being punched.

[ Who doesn't? But at least he caved when Kido threatened him. ]

Maybe it's just a baseless assumption, but... I don't think they're the type of people who care about blackmail. Blackmail only works if you have secrets or reputation that you want to keep. If they don't have memories, maybe what they know so far isn't really worth keeping as a secret.

[ Blackmailing 101, as taught by Terry Nowell, who has credits from blackmailing burglars every other week. ]

[ Terry could have stopped at "reputation" because Kido's immediately hit with the memory of Souji wearing a skirt and YEAH THIS GUY HAS NO SHAME HE WOULDN'T CARE ABOUT REPUTATION ]

...I wish I could forget about that... But I guess you're right.

[ Hm.

Maybe it's too much to ask for, but... ]

What if... you can talk with them without punching? A civil conversation that doesn't turn into violence?

[ ... Though he's not the one to talk since he attempted to rip Minato's face off on Day 1. ]

Depends on how stupid either of them are being. Which one's more reasonable to talk to?

[ Punching isn't her fault? Clearly it's the fault of whoever provokes her. Terry knows this. ]

[ He wanted to try...................... guess it was hopeless after all. ]

I dunno if there are more than two, but the one with the gray hair explained a lot than the blue-haired one.

[ wow, no faith in the velvet room attendants ]

The one with the grey hair is the one that I talked to... He kinda reminds me of you, in a way.

... Why?

[ Should he be offended??? He's not sure what to think. ]

Oh, and don't punch the one with the blue hair... if you can help it.

[ That moment when Minato summoned Vassago with that expression on his face is never going to leave his head. ]

[ He should probably be offended. Kido takes that "why?" as a rhetorical question and turns to give him a weird look, even if she can't make proper eye contact like this. ]

Did you try to punch him? What for?

[ Has she ever seen Terry punch somebody...? She's not sure. She doesn't think so. ]

He had Rei's Persona, so I thought... something happened to Rei. Because Personas are supposed to be somewhat unique, right?

[ ... ]

... I was also feeling really stressed at the time.

Are they supposed to be unique...? Souji had Nekogami too, but Nekogami's a generic cat god, isn't he?

[ Which is why she wasn't surprised when he also had the ghost cat. Maybe if she saw Vassago, it'd have made a larger impact. ]

Did anything happen to Rei...?

[ Where is Rei... Schrödinger's Rei. ]

[ Schrödinger's Rei made me cackle at 2 in the morning... i'm dead ]

Probably not... He summoned Vassago too, so it confirmed that he didn't necessarily have to hurt the owner to get their Personas.

[ But you can't really deny it either at the same time. It really is Schrödinger's Rei... ]

Edited (a word) 2019-08-14 06:03 (UTC)

[ Go to sleep, Haki... also Schrödinger's Rei means Ichi still has the power to make things not okay lmfao ]

Right. And I was fine too, back then. Souji said they're not bound by the same "rules" as we are, though. So they can summon whatever, without needing those charms. That's kind of unfair...

premise ⬥ taken ⬥ faq ⬥ navigation

→ 8/13-8/15 Obon Festival

→ 8/15 Castle Ruins and the Shrine

→ 8/15 Welcome to the Velvet Room

→ MOD NOTES

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