[open] 11/9 hirajiro mystery gang

[reveilation]

[ Over the past week and a half, either Kido or Akira have been going around asking Persona users to attend a meeting at noon on the 9th, with the meeting place being the first floor of the castle in the forest. People who Kido thinks will require dragging to the castle, she makes sure to find and drag over, since she wants everybody to be there in order to share their thoughts and get everybody on the same page. It's rare that everybody comes together like this, so she wants to make the most of it.

There isn't much in the way of furniture and the fridge in the Velvet Room is broken, so Kido can't rely on the kitchen to cook unending gyudon like she did last time. She'd stuck her head into the train this morning and saw something she really didn't need to see, so everybody else is also banned from entering the Velvet Room until the meeting is concluded. Instead, blankets are laid out on the ground and there's a stack of bento boxes which will be easy to eat while sitting outside. There's around three times as many bentos as the number of people, since she knows there's people who'd want seconds (or thirds or fourths or fourteenths... there's a limited amount this time, so no eating contests!!) and if there are any left over, people can take them home. ]

Is everybody settled? Food is on the throne over there, and there's barley tea and cups on the ground next to it, so eat up. Feel free to go back and get more if you're still hungry, but wait until everybody has the chance to get one first. When you're finished, put the box and chopsticks into the bag in the corner so I can wash them later. The cats have their own food, so do not feed the cats anything from the bento. If I catch you, you're not eating for the rest of the meeting.

[ She can't be sure if there's anything in the boxes that might be bad for cats, so it's a blanket ban, sorry cats... There are quite a few in the area, though, including Kano and Shiro. Kano especially does not get food. ]

Now, the first thing we need to talk about...

[ There are a few topics she wants to make sure they discuss, and then the floor is open for anything else people want to bring up, whether it's plot clues, mysteries people are looking into, general questions to bring up to the group, etc. Feel free to post a new toplevel for each new topic to discuss. Since it's a large open mingle, there may be threadjacking.

Also as a reminder, this month the reward for request 12 (two threads with fourth wall characters) is a plot clue in the form of a direct answer to any question your character may have. If there's something that comes up in the discussion that the characters are unsure of and think the Attendants might know (it's possible they might not), it's an option for getting those questions answered. ]

Comments

[cicadashell]

You still don't have any proof that door's gonna take you home.

[While Jiro wasn't involved with the first two Daitengu, he's talked to Kido about the ofuda and the door, and she didn't know exactly where it would lead. He still thinks it's sounding more like a ritual. The people from the other Hirajiro may have a point.]

[reveilation]

I know. That was a pretty big oversight, accepting it without question. I was really hopeful back then...

[ It was a little over a month into being here, where her thoughts were so strongly geared towards going home, that she latched onto that hope with little to no proof. She still believes it'll take them home; there's just no proof. ]

When the meeting is over, we can ask the Attendants about that too, whether they can give us proof. [ There's a glance towards Akira, and then back at Jiro. ] But we'll save that for the end.

[cicadashell]

[He follows her look to Akira. Jiro's assuming he's the guy in charge of the door information gathering. It makes sense, as that's where he met Akira, outside the Velvet Room portal in the castle.]

Sure.

[Jiro's here mainly for the food. He hasn't been around and doesn't know what half of the conversations are about.]

[reveilation]

[ Yeah, Kido just heard about the door and got excited about the prospect of going home and never questioned it sense. Akira would have more valid insight on this sort of thing. ]

Did you hear anything else about the door from anyone? Either in our group or the others?

[cicadashell]

Nope. I told some green haired kid about it though.

[He told Yuya, and explained how it was supposed to work. Jiro hasn't been looking for any real information; he's been too focused on the dungeon floors.]

[reveilation]

Enkidu...?

[ Who is a zombie right now but Kido doesn't immediately think of Yuya, just the people she knows from before. ]

Did they think it's plausible? Or if it's suspicious?

[cicadashell]

I don't know his name. He works at the maid cafe.

[Jiro's first conversation with Yuya was mostly one-sided.]

Pretty sure he didn't give a fuck about it at all.

[Yuya's words were "Oh. I see."]

[reveilation]

...It's maid week at the cafe.

[ They're this short on maids... Anyways, she shakes her head. ]

I don't know what's up with that. He's not one of the people sitting around here, right? If he were another Persona user, they probably don't care about the door in our castle. They'd have their own, or some other way out.

[cicadashell]

[Maybe he's not a Persona user. He said he came from the castle and not the dungeon, but it doesn't matter either way.]

Right. I haven't talked to anyone else about it.

[He has nothing to contribute.]

[reveilation]

...Alright, we'll just leave it at that, then.

[ She also points at his two bento boxes that he's eating both at once, though. Jiro??? ]

You'd better finish everything. Don't let me see you waste food.

[ At least feed it to somebody else if you don't want it. He could probably share with Rei and she'd be happy to finish the rest. ]

[cicadashell]

I'll eat it.

[Even if he doesn't want the rest of it. Because Shuuya's not here, so he's assuming one of these was supposed to be for him, and Jiro is eating it out of spite. Sorry, Rei.]

[reveilation]

Good.

[ Wow. Thanks for finishing everything out of spite; Kido will accept that, even if the reason is sort of ehh. ]

[flowerclips]

[ no, don't say "sorry, rei". just share it with her. the moment that she heard something about finishing everything and wasting food, she immediately appears out of thin air. this is a good way for her to meet jiro. ]

Oh, I'll eat it if you don't want it!

[ she will interrupt your spite for a moment. ]

[cicadashell]

[Jiro just stares at her. Where the fuck did she come from?]

Uh.

[He doesn't really want all of this, and it's fine if the end result is the same: no food for Kano. It's childish and he knows it, but he doesn't care. Jiro picks a few things out of one bento box, and dumps what he doesn't want from the second box into into what's left of the first. He hands the disorganized bento of unappetizing things to Rei.]

Have at it.

[flowerclips]

Thank you, mister!

[ she came from the void because free food. :9 anyway, she'll take the bento without a second glance and literally inhale its contents. she barely chews as she eats all the leftovers in record time. ahhh, this is the best. ]

Delicious!

[ she'll then set down the box. ]

[infiltrationtools]

[...To be honest Akira was just sitting there, eating, though he didn't seem like he was particularly present in the moment. (That's mainly because he was speaking to Arsène.) But when he notices both Kido and Jiro turning to look at him, he brings himself back.]

Sorry, what do you need?

[cicadashell]

Proof the Attendants know where the ofuda door goes.

[He'll ask Minato about it later, and will get no answers.]

[infiltrationtools]

We don't have any.

[No reason to beat around the bush.]

But it must go somewhere, and even if they're lying, the fact that the Daitengu are all guarding the keys means that it's important.

[cicadashell]

Yeah, but what's important to them might not be favorable to us.

[They may be pawns.]

[infiltrationtools]

Right now we don't have any idea what's beyond that door. It's just as likely that it's bad as it's good.

[Sorry, if you were expecting him to have all that deep Daitengu lore, he doesn't.]

It could be the way out of here, it could be sealing away the Daitengu's ancient nemesis that will destroy the town. It comes down to how you weigh the kind-of safety of Hirajiro right now, compared to the possibility of moving forward.

...I guess we could ask the Daitengu.

[cicadashell]

[Akira has a good point there, and it's not like anyone wants to stay here in Hirajiro, which is basically the other option.]

Did you ever talk to the other ones; the Daitengu?

[infiltrationtools]

[Akira really, really doesn't want to stay in Hirajiro. At least, he wants the option to go back to the home he was torn away from back in May 2017.]

No, but apparently, the people from the other Hirajiro are diplomatic with them.

We may have lost our chance by killing off two of them, but someone like you who wasn't involved might be able to do it. If you want to.

[cicadashell]

[Jiro wants that option too, to go back to exactly when he left. He was in the middle of something very important.]

I'm probably not the best person to talk to them.

[He might yell and insult them or something.]

The people from the other Hirajiro, though... if their diplomacy initiative or whatever they're doing worked, why are they saying their town is all messed up? Doesn't that mean they did something wrong?

[infiltrationtools]

Our town was pretty messed-up too, until very recently.

[Jiro must remember the flooding, right? He's pretty new, so it makes sense that he doesn't know what happened before then.]

There's been natural disaster after natural disaster ever since we got here... it doesn't sound like it was as bad as theirs, but it always takes us a long time to kill the Daitengu.

Because our numbers are so small.

[cicadashell]

[He does remember the flooding. It was receding when he showed up, funneling into the lake.]

I didn't know about anything but the flood. So, the Daitengu are responsible for that stuff if they're here too long.

[He maybe should have been getting more information from people before asking all his questions in a meeting where everyone else knew what was happening already.]