[OPEN] i too hate thinking up titles

[elliexir]

ɪ. ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ sᴜᴄᴋs

[ man, this is literally the worst. ellie was just trying to get home from another stupid session at the lab when she decided to take a shortcut through an alleyway. yeah, maybe it's her fault because a dark alleyway when the sun is already down and it's downtown toronto? probably not one of her brightest ideas, but she would have totally saved a full five minutes by cutting through. it seemed worth it but now she suddenly finds herself awake in some weird castle and honestly, everything sucks. ]

[ magic is only cool in the movies and comics. in real life, it's just kind of a pain? magic's literally the only explanation why she's suddenly in the middle of nowhere and while this is nice and all, she'd like to go back home now. ]

... hello?

[ she calls out. unlike kano, she ventures into the velvet room because she has no fear. who will she find in here? hmmm ]

ɪɪ. ᴍᴀɢɪᴄ sᴛɪʟʟ sᴜᴄᴋs

[ eventually, ellie finds her way to civilization. granted, it wasn't very hard to find considering there are only two paths leading out of the castle, so she stands in front of the sign that marks the town as hirajiro. she squints at it. ]

Okaaaaaaay... I can suddenly read Japanese now. Cool, that's not weird at all.

[ man, she's never really going to wrap her head around this magic stuff. she waves down the nearest person. ]

Hey, uh, can you say something in Japanese?

[ ... guess who's still speaking in english because she hasn't realized that she can speak japanese as well. ]

ɪɪɪ. ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ sʜᴇ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋs sᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ's ɴᴏsᴇ

[ so, ellie tackles on her first lockdown by grabbing a broom that she can find from the edge of the forest and sneaking around through town, hiding around building corners. she hasn't learned about her persona just yet so she has decided to arm herself. of course, she hasn't exactly clued into the fact that there are other humans still around during the lockdown so when she hears slightly rustling coming from around the corner, she immediately jumps out and swings the broomstick with all of her might. ]

[ ... sorry to whoever was behind that corner. at least be thankful that she doesn't have her switchblade. ]

ɪᴠ. ᴡɪʟᴅᴄᴀʀᴅ

[ all the above prompts take place on 09/28! but ellie can be everywhere tbh so feel free to come up with whatever. you know you can reach me at northpaws or protag ]

Comments

ii.

[reveilation]

[ Uh... Guess who can't speak or understand English at all. I had it so Kano knew Kido back at the orphanage but not that well, so we'll just say that AU Kido wasn't really friends with either of them and just did her own thing so Ellie probably wouldn't recognize her.

That aside...

Waving is ssssssort of universal? Kido doesn't know what to say, so she just slows to a stop and waves back. Hi. ]

[elliexir]

Oh, uh...

[ well, this is awkward. at least the other person stopped and waved, but time for some extreme charades. ]

Uh, can you... talk?

[ she holds up her right hand and makes a yapping sound with it. you know, when people motion with their hands to signify talking. ]

[reveilation]

[ Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

No, Kido has no idea what that hand motion might mean. Her best guess is that Ellie's trying to ask about crabs, because they also do the pincer thing. There's no ocean around here, but somehow the fish market has seafood— which may or may not be real, but it's there.

So she mirrors the pincer thing ("crab"), points at her mouth ("eat"), and then nods, waving for Ellie to follow her so Kido can show her where to buy seafood.

Charades are easy. ]

[elliexir]

[ uhhhh, where is she being taken? she opens her mouth to ask but then realizes that there's no point because it's not like kido can understand her so she just tags along. dude, if she's being led to get knocked out and her organs taken or whatever, she's going to be so pissed off. ]

[reveilation]

[ I mean, if Ellie gets her fingers snipped off by a crab, that's not Kido's fault. She walks up front when she leads, occasionally glancing back at Ellie to see if she's following, and soon, they're at the fish market.

And here lies the dilemma of what to do next. Ellie is probably new, since she doesn't know her way around the town, so why does she want something expensive like crab? Can she afford crab??

Kido digs into her pocket and holds out a coin. Do you have money, kid? ]

iii.

[infiltrationtools]

[There's a lot of things that go bump in the night during Lockdown, so Akira makes it a point not to leave his house at night without a knife in his hand and a second in his belt. When something rounds the corner and tries to attack him, he's already on high alert to respond to it.]

[Before Akira registers what is attacking him, though, he's using the knife to parry whatever's coming towards him, which turns out to be the broomstick. Then and only then does he realize that there's a Person There, Actually.]

I'm not a Shadow, back off!

[He's hissing the words quietly. They don't sound friendly.]

[elliexir]

[ as akira parries the broom, ellie takes a step back, still holding onto her makeshift weapon. ]

Oh shit-- sorry--

[ she immediately begins to apologize because holy shit, it's an actual other person and not a weird black monster blob. it's hard to really register who's in front of her in the darkness, but as she squints, she finally recognizes who's in front of her. ]

Akira? Oh man, you're here too?

[infiltrationtools]

[It's pretty pathetic to say, but for a moment Akira's heart seizes up. Someone recognizes him - is it one of his friends from home? Is it someone from the experiment? Considering how rapidly his familiar friends have been disappearing from his life, it's entirely understandable (but still kind of pathetic, if you ask him) how quickly he gets his hopes up.]

[But then he takes a closer look at her, and that hope dies as quickly as any other. It's replaced with confusion; in the dark it's hard to tell, but...]

Do I know you from somewhere?

[He hasn't lowered the knife.]

[elliexir]

[ ellie has lowered her broom once she noticed that it was akira that she bumped into, but she noticed that akira hasn't lowered his knife... ]

Yeah, Daybreak? France?

[ is he just messing with her or something? ]

ii

[overstrain]

[ Wow, it's another foreigner! At least Terry doesn't look Japanese, because he isn't, but he'll oblige by saying: ]

Is this good enough?

[ In Japanese. But then he switches to English: ]

I didn't think I'd see another English-speaking person here...

[elliexir]

--whoa, I just understood what you just said! Oh man, that's crazy.

[ holy shit, this is really weird. ]

But uh, yeah, I only know English-- uh, well, I guess until now?

[overstrain]

Haha, yeah... I felt the same when I first came here. I only knew English too. I guess you're also a Persona user? Since you're surprised by the whole thing and all.

[ NPCs don't just suddenly become aware that they learn another language, even with the Rosetta Stone. Probably. ]

[elliexir]

Persona?

[ she has no idea what that means. she has the omamori charm but she hasn't really connected any dots at all. ]

i

[defragment]

[ 45 hears someone from another room and comes out of her own to peek over at Ellie's room. Huh. She hasn't seen her before. She's still in her Attendant getup as always. Maybe Souji should say something about people getting mixed up, but she's not going to clear up anything because it's fun. lol

She opens the door to Ellie's room. ]

Hallo~

[ That's a real German accent right there, but she'll switch to Japanese, which seems to be a more understood language in this place. ]

Are you looking for something?

[elliexir]

[ ??????? who is this weirdo, why is she speaking japanese, and why does ellie suddenly understand that? god, magic is weird. why can't magic be cool where she can breathe fire or fly or something like that? she really drew the short straw. ]

Uh, yeah, I'm looking for the way out.

[ she replies in english just because. ]

[defragment]

[ Then 45 will also reply in English because fuck canon ambiguity, that's what. ]

Hm? You just came through it.

[ The way out of the Velvet Room, that is. ]

[elliexir]

[ wow, thanks, 45, what a useful answer. ]

No, I mean from everything, because I'm pretty sure that this isn't Toronto anymore.

iii.

[suddenlybees]

[ You know what? Yeah. Kano makes the mistake of sneaking up on Ellie after they'd agreed to split up, scout the area, and meet back here after half an hour, and he gets a broomstick in his face for his troubles, just barely avoiding a broken nose because he's quick enough on his feet to jump back. The stick hits him on the cheek instead, but it's right at home there with all the other cuts and bruises left behind from the past several years. ]

...Yikes!! I should be asking you to protect me while we're out here, huh?

[ He doesn't need to worry about Ellie. She's fine. ]

[elliexir]

[ yeah, this is definitely on you, kano. you should know better than now to sneak up on ellie, especially during this weird dark hour (haha). she does take back her broom, pulling it close to her once she realizes that she has attacked the wrong(?) person haha. ]

Dude, don't scare me like that!

[ she reacts with anger at first but she steps up closer to make sure that she didn't smack him or whatever. ]

Are you all right?

[suddenlybees]

Gotta keep you on your toes now that we're not at school anymore, right?

[ Kano grins for her, which is also the answer to her question: if he can smile and joke around as normal, then he's perfectly alright. ]

Did you find anything good? It looks like the Mists here follow video game logic: they can't climb stairs. If we keep to the roofs and stuff, we can get around fine~

[elliexir]

[ she squints at him. kano, you're almost always smiling and joking... ]

Oh, so we're going to have to jump from roof to roof? Psh, that sounds easy enough.

[ considering that she did stupid stuff like this all the time because it's ~cool~ and parkour is ~awesome~ and all that nonsense, she can handle some roof jumping. ]

But I haven't been able to find anything. This place is completely dead. I got no idea what to do.

II

[not_that_sasuke]

[Yeah his English is piss poor so uhhhh have another kid staring at you in confusion Ellie.

Uh.]

You... can't speak it?

[He's trying to use simple words, because he's pretty sure she's a Persona user, but he also has no idea how languages work for people who don't already know Japanese???]

[elliexir]

[ oh shit, she can understand him! man, this is so weird but at the same time, kind of cool?? there are many mixed feelings right now and she can't focus on going 'whoaaaa' for too long. she has to communicate so time to do exaggerated hand gestures. ]

Uh, not really? [ just because she hasn't tried... ] But I can totally understand what you're saying!

[ she points at sasuke, at her ear, and nods to hopefully get across that she can understand him... ]

[not_that_sasuke]

[Okay. So she understands. He'll go back to talking as he normally does to see if she can still understand that, too.]

If you didn't already know it... Does that mean you know how to speak it now?

[These sorts of things might as well happen here, after all.]

[elliexir]

Maybe? Let's see, uh, what should I say...

[ she tries to think. hmm, okay, let's start out simple. she wants to introduce herself so she tries to think about how she wants to say it in japanese. she looks upwards as she concentrates. ][ she says it slowly as the translation just magically appears in her head and out her mouth. ]

Holy shit, I can speak it!