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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

Hmmm, can't we just put them together in a pan and mix them?

[ she clearly thinks that they go together. she will eat anything :9 ]

[ Minato nods, because that's exactly what he's going to do. He's just going to assume everything here is washed because washing all of this sounds like a pain, and cooking should kill any bacteria anyways so whatever. ]

Can you look in the cupboard for the largest mixing bowl you can find? It's the door with apron hung on the knob. You can wear that one too.

[ It's Souji's so she'll probably have to fold and tie it so she doesn't trip on the length of it, but in the meanwhile, Minato gets the stove turned on and pours oil into a pan and sets it there. Oil can't burn, he can take his time with cutting everything up and just throwing it all into a mixing bowl and figure out what to do from there. ]

Okay!

[ she will do as he asks and go through the cupboards for a big bowl. luckily, souji likes keeping the kitchen organized and tidy so it only takes her seconds to find one and take it out. she'll set it on the counter for minato and then take the apron (it's a simple beige one). ]

Here, since you're cooking, you need this more!

[ she'll slip the apron over his head and hopefully, he'll slip his arms through so she doesn't need to do that part for him. she will tie it around the back though! ]

Oh... thanks.

[ The apron is slipped over his head and Minato contemplates for a moment not moving his arms but then he would be trapped and unable to move so he goes ahead and puts it on properly so Rei can finish tying it. It's a bit large on him too, but at least now he'll be protected from blood splatters if he accidentally chops off a finger. ]

Do you have any favorite spices? I'm not too good with them, so... you can just pick out some fun ones, and we'll sprinkle them on top at the end.

I like all kind of spices as long as they have a taste!

[ which is... not very specific, but she will go through the little spice rack to see what's there. hmm, she looks for a moment before she picks up the bottle of carolina reaper spice. ]

Ohh, how about this? It's a nice colour.

[ compared to all the boring other colours. ]

Oh... pretty. Good choice.

[ Why does Souji even have that? But this is good because now Minato can screw up as much as he wants and it's not like either of them will be able to taste it anyways, all they'll taste is pain.

It's just really sad because it would otherwise be a pretty okay dish... You can't go wrong with stir fried vegetables, apples cook down pretty well too when diced up in high heat, and the lemon juice gets squeezed on top for flavor except there will be no other flavor but pain after he's through with it. The fish he just sort sears on both sides and hopes it cooks through because he doesn't really know how to remove the bones without making a mess, so it's just... plain boring fish. With bones. And scales. And eyes.

But soon he's done cooking and gets out two plates to portion out the fish on the bottom, vegetables over that, and an egg cracked on top and left to cook in the residual heat. He is very generous with the amount of spice he shakes over the plates, enough that there's just a layer of bright red on top of all the food. That weird vegetable thing he doesn't know the name of gets placed on top of all of that to complete the look. It's a very pretty dish! It's just painful. Minato looks proud of himself anyways. ]

[ apparently, souji has this spice in times like these: when two people who don't belong in a kitchen try to fit in and create a dish of Pain. ]

Wow, that looks like a professional dish!

[ she doesn't have much to base that assumption off, considering that she either ate hospital food for her entire living life or festival food for her entire limbo life, but then again, anything looks great to her. she'll pull out the flip phone that terry helped her get and snap a picture. she can show terry and kido how minato tried to kill her. ]

I didn't know you were such a good cook, Vice Leader!

[ It can't even be said that it's their fault; Souji put the spice there and it's so red and pretty and tempting so he's to blame.

Minato, in the meanwhile, looks pretty pleased with himself because of how rare it is that he gets praised for things— mostly because it's rare that he does anything praiseworthy, or because it's rare that he does anything, period. ]

Surprised, huh? Cooking... I guess is like everything else: you can do it if you try. And food is food, anyways. If it's interesting to eat, it's good food.

[ Minato will support your culinary endeavors, Rei, don't listen to Kido. ]

[ and souji gets punished for leaving it out there, falling victim to this monstrous creation... now he knows to hide it so it can never fall into the wrong hands again. ]

Ohh, that sounds right. Okay, I'll try cooking as soon as I can use a kitchen! I'll do my best just like you!

[ lmfao kido will have to tackle rei to the ground on the first day they move in. she's going to use the stove and recreate this recipe!! ]

Here. [ while minato was cooking, rei looked for the utensils and set them to the side so she picks them up and holds out a fork to minato. ] Now we can dig in!

[ Rei is a good girl who will become a master chef, Minato believes in her. He takes the fork and spears some slivers of pepper and radish, things that are already a little spicy by themselves but now his mouth is burning and he can feel his eyes watering a little, but there's no other outward reaction on his face besides slight disappointment, because pain isn't a fun sensation and there's too much pain to taste any of this. He might die, but it'll be out of disappointment, not the urge to rip his tongue out of his month so it'll stop burning. ]

Thanks for the meal!

[ she takes her fork and takes a piece of everything, shoving as much as she can on her fork so she can get a really big serving of all the ingredients at once. she looks like she's in completely bliss when she puts it in her mouth and starts to chew. ]

Mmm, it has a nice texture and it's crisp--

--bleh?!

[ the spices kick in the more she chews and suddenly, she feels like she's dying?! tears start forming immediately in her eyes and she starts to hiccup then cough and oh no, this is the end... guess she'll be reunited with zen because this is the end. unlike minato's poker face only showing slight disappointment, there is pure agony across rei's face. ]

[ Don't waste food, Rei. Swallow it. Minato mixes the food on his plate around so it looks like he ate some of it, and looks over at Rei expectantly. ]

Careful, the fish still has bones in it...

[ it's really hard to talk when everything hurts. this is probably the worst amount of pain that she has ever felt. at least yukiko's mystery food x knocked her out so she didn't have to experience anything. this one... this just keeps her awake and in agony. ]

M-- May-- Maybe the fish-- [ she hiccups in between. ] --bones. The bones-- it did this?

[ because it can't be that red spice that they've used. that looks way too pretty to hurt anyone. ]

[ Minato nods slowly, because it's possible? Anything is possible. Yeah, let's blame the fish; it isn't their fault.

He picks both their plates up, pauses by the trash can, but then uses his elbow to nudge open the fridge door and stick them inside without out even covering them up or anything. ]

Maybe they'll be better if they cool a bit... Let's have ice cream in the meantime.

[ normally, she would get a lot more excited about ice cream but the pain and agony makes everything very difficult to focus on any emotion other than Sheer Pain. ]

Ice cream! That-- sounds good. Is it in the fridge?

[ or do they have to venture outside and let her suffer some more until she can get some :( ]

[ Minato hopes and prays that there is ice cream in the fridge but there is no ice cream in the fridge. Instead, he pulls out a bag of frozen fish. ]

It's... sorta like a popsicle... Here, Rei.

[ It's smelt. Rei's favorite. They can both suck on fish until somebody comes in and goes "uh" ]

[ she absolutely takes one of the frozen fish from the bag and immediately shoves it in her mouth without giving it a second thought. ]

Mm, smelt.

[ she mumbles from around the fish shoved into her mouth. the coolness of it is helping a bit. ]

Thanks, Vice Leader, my mouth feels a little better now... [ this is all being said while the fish is in her mouth so just pretend that she's saying this all super muffled. ] I hope the food that you made cools down soon. I want to finish eating mine since you worked so hard to make it.

[ Minato sucks on his smelt a little, but he didn't take as large a bite as Rei did, so his tongue is fine and he places his spit covered fish back into the freezer bag. ]

You're welcome. We can keep it in the fridge for you to eat whenever you get hungry again.

[ A better person would try to convince Rei not to eat it, or secretly throw everything out so she can't, but Minato is not a better person, Minato is somebody who believes people should do what they want, and if Rei wants to eat it then Minato won't stop her.

Besides, it kind of feels good to be have his efforts recognized, that she'll eat it because he made it. Souji had better eat the entire boar's worth of katsudon too. ]

[ he places his spit-covered fish back into the freezer bag... well, at least minato will probably be the only one to eat it so it should be fine. rei will just continue to suck on hers. this is her fish now :9 ]

Okay, I'll come back for it! I'll make sure to share it with my friends.

[ lmfao kido better eat it or else rei will be upset. vice leader made it for her :( ]

It was good seeing you again, Vice Leader.

[ Yeah, Minato's the only one who ever eats the stuff in here unless Souji sees some interesting mold I guess, so he didn't think Souji would care about the fish or the stir fry or any of that. Kido will take one bite and dump the rest in the garbage disposal while staring Rei dead in the eyes. ]

Yeah. It's good seeing you.

[ Not again, but just... for the first time. He leans back on the counter, hands folded behind him to protect his back from the counter edge jabbing him in the spine. ]

...Hey, Rei? When was the last time you saw me? What was I doing?

[ kido dumping the stir fry in the garbage disposal and rei with tears in her eyes: i'm moving out, i can't live here anymore. ]

Ummm...

[ she starts to think. even though it's only really been a month and a half since she last saw him and everyone else, it feels like such a long time. she places a finger to her chin and looks upwards, lowering the fish in her other hand. ]

You were going back home with your team. We spent a bit of time at the festival before we all said our goodbyes.

[ it's at this point that rei finally remembers a key piece of information. ]

Oh, right... they said that you wouldn't remember anything from that time after you went back home...

[ If Minato's surprised to hear about him having a team, he's able to keep it off his face. Really, it's kind of unimaginable for him to have a team of any sort, when he prefers going off on his own and doing things by himself, let alone visiting a festival with a bunch of other people. It sounds difficult to keep everybody in line that way, with the crowds and people wanting to do different things. ]

Yeah, I don't remember it at all... But I still remember you, Rei.

[ Not entirely, but at least her name and just a very general sense of who she is. ]

That means something, doesn't it?

[ don't do that, minato, don't give her hope... but she does remember the rest of the teams talking about this. even if they might forget about everything that happened in limbo, they'll still remember each other deep down so sure, she doens't question it, even if we all know that this is just atlus' way of being like lol now this game won't interfere with timelines. ]

... Mmhm, it does. I'm so glad that you still remember me.

[ there's something melancholic about that smile she gives. ]

Will it all right if we spend time together like we used to?

Yeah, we've got lots of time together now, so we can spend it however we want.

[ He has no idea what he and Rei used to do together, but if it's something innocuous as napping, eating, and drawing, he's all for it. It's a much easier task than getting people to love themselves. ]

I think it'll be a while until things get settled, so... There's lots of time. We'll take it a day at a time, okay?

[ Also before I forget, this will be Minato's picture to Rei, he did his best trying to render the middle finger but it's hard, Rei can bring this with her to stick on their fridge at home ]

AUGUST EVENT PT 2

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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