[open] 11/24 hirajiro mystery gang, take two

[citta]

[ It sure has been a week. Hopefully people have gotten the chance to decompress after the sheer amount of everything, but so much has been brought up that can't be left ignored for too long, so a second meeting has been called this month, also at the castle at noon on the 24th. With team unity being such an issue, it's stressed that everybody comes, and if there's anybody missing, Kido will hunt them down. There are also two extra numbers in their group now: Minato and Souji; they're part of this whether they like it our not.

Kido calls for everybody's attention as soon as it seems like everybody's here. They're still missing a couple of people... but food will get cold if they wait for everybody, so the stragglers will just have to deal. ]

Lunch is curry rice. Make sure to thank Akira for cooking for us this time, and let him or me know if the pot's running low. Don't feed the cats. Or the dog. Or the jellyfish. Or the snake. Or the lizard.

[ Kano's bearded dragon who's his stand-in today. This place is a zoo, jfc. Kido's not sure what all these extra animals are about, but it's not her business so don't tell her. Paper and pens are going to be passed out to everybody alongside their food. It's old school note taking so everybody has all the information on hand, building off of the notes Terry had at the last meeting, because SOMEONE wasn't there when they faced the boss and SOMEONE skipped out on the meeting after she told him to come. ]

...Needless to say, we learned a lot from the Daitengu last week, and have committed to our decision to continue fighting the Daitengu. To start, we should compile everything we know in one place, because everything else we discuss ties in with what this world is and what we're going to do about it.

[ Like last time, there's a list of topics that they want to discuss, and people can bring up their own topics. Both Attendants will be at the meeting this time, and if there's any thread you want them to chime in on, you can ping Ichi at northpaws / protag and Card at birdseed ]

Comments

Kotengu

[reveilation]

In the end, we chose to fight the Daitengu. We made that very clear, and there's no way to back out of it now. It was a group decision, but if anybody has any grievances, let them be known now.

[ We may be fucked! The world might fall apart and the Kotengu might kill us all, but it's what the group chose. ]

We need to decide what to do from here. We have to get rid of the last Daitengu, or he'll find a way to eliminate us anyways. We might as well bring the battle to him. After that... it's how we're going to defeat the Kotengu, without making him stronger in the meanwhile. The Daitengu is pretty adamant about the Kotengu being just as much of an asshole as he is, but we really have no choice but to fight him now, do we? It's either that, or we try negotiations again, but... I don't know.

[ Maybe the Kotengu will be less of an asshole. Maybe he'll actually be a good guy. Kido's not very hopeful. ]

We're in a tight spot here, if we have to fight. He's the one responsible for the whole Persona thing in the first place, so that puts us at a severe disadvantage already, and he's the only one who controls the door home. If we choose not to fight, I don't know what we can use as leverage to guarantee we can go home—-

Nobody is allowed to use their souls as bargaining chips, got that? I shouldn't have to say it.

[ But she will, and she's going to hunt Toki down the next time she sees him so she can shake his shoulders and tell make him promise too. She can't believe he skipped too. ]

[defragment]

I'm going off from what the Daitengu said before, but since it seems to control our powers and memories, it seems that we'll have much more to worry about than not having any sort of powers to fight against it. Moreover, I also believe the strange phenomenon that's been occurring across several Persona users are also its doing, if it can already extend that much control over us.

[ Time to panic? She's just gonna keep petting the jellyfish. ]

[reveilation]

[ It's probably time to panic, yeah. ]

You mean losing memories and everything? That'd be really bad...

[ She looks around for Terry who isn't here, but the timing was coincidental enough that she didn't think much about it when he lost his memories. ]

If the Kotengu has control over that and has been giving us things, I wonder if he'll take those back too... Like that jellyfish. Did a crow drop it out of the sky?

Dungeons

[reveilation]

The Daitengu mentioned that the dungeons function as a prison, where the Kotengu is being contained. Apparently the weird flooding and everything else was our fault, but we were correct that killing the Daitengu gets the weather to go back to normal. If we want to protect the town, we have to do this. If we kill the Shadows and the Daitengu, we'll be saving the town as well as prevent people from falling into ego death— at the cost of Kotengu getting stronger. But maybe that won't happen if we stop bringing the stones to the shrine? Should we leave the Shadows alone and just focus on the Daitengu? Though we won't get stronger if we don't fight and gain the comfort and experience...

[ They cleared this dungeon quickly, which hopefully means a nice December... She's so sick of bad weather, and will be glad to not have a month long blizzard, because that's absolutely what would have happened. ]

He also said the dungeon at the shrine is different than the other ones. When we were going through it, apparently we've been putting more pressure on the Kotengu or something, and that's why those memories we released. [ She spares a quick glance at the Attendants, before turning back to the group at large. ] I'm not really sure about the implications, but it's something to keep in mind, if we want to defeat all the Daitengu, but don't want the Kotengu to be too strong either.

All that aside, they've been getting harder even though we're getting stronger too, but nobody should be in a dungeon alone even if it's one of the earlier ones. With the last Daitengu especially, we have to go at it together from now on. We needed everybody last time, and the next one will just be tougher, so we have to fight as a team. Can everybody agree on that?

[defragment]

If we're going to fight as a team, we need to know what everyone can and cannot do. If you can list your strengths and weaknesses in combat and negotiation, that would be great.

[ They don't have anything like a whiteboard here, so 45 will pass out a sheet of paper to everyone and a regular lead pencil. ]

To start off, what can your Persona dish out? Are you strong in certain areas such as tanking hits? Are you fast? Just keep various things in mind as you fill it out. Malphas will collect the papers once you're done.

[ The tall lanky crow dude stands behind her. ]

[cicadashell]

What the fuck is tanking hits?

[Jiro writes things like "it's a flying lion", "the snake electrifies shit?", and "weak as fuck to psychic bullshit". Very helpful information.]

[laconism]

[God, he feels like he's in school..... Whatever. He spends a good while writing on his sheet, eventually holding it out for Malphas to take. It reads:]

- strong, can tank hits pretty well
- not very good with words

Amarok (Persona)
Ice type, weak against fire
Attacks: Bufu, Lunge, Heat Riser, Dia

Pikachu
Electric type, weak against ground
Attacks: Charm, Quick Attack, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Breakneck Blitz (Z-move)
- low defense but extremely fast

Charizard
Fire/Flying type, weak against water, electric and rock
Attacks: Flamethrower
- hard hitter and fast flyer
- can mega evolve into 2 forms, X and Y form
- X: breathes blue fire that can melt almost anything
- Y: can fly faster than a fighter jet

Blastoise
Water type, weak against electric and grass
Attacks: Surf
- tanky and heavy but slow
- can mega evolve — gains a large cannon on his back and 2 smaller ones on his arms

Espeon
Psychic type, weak against dark, bug and ghost
Attacks: Psychic, Shattered Psyche (Z-move)
- can read minds, sense supernatural phenomena and predict the future
- can only control 1 person/object with Psychic at a time

[Have fun with all of that.]

Attendants

[reveilation]

According to the Daitengu, the two of you gave your memories to the Kotengu?

[ She eyes the Attendants. Only Souji looks back; Minato is more interested in the plate of curry balanced on his knees. ]

Either way, we've gotten a lot of them back. Jiro's been collecting them and writing them down, so I'll leave it to him to lead the discussion on everything he's learned from the memories we have so far.

[ You're being volunteered. Thanks, Jiro. ]

But if Minato and Souji are seeing the same memories that we saw while going through the dungeon, then there's still gaps. We should figure out what we can now, and I agree with Rio about going back to the dungeon and releasing more memories so we have a fuller picture. We know you had lives before becoming Attendants, and we know you were in the same position we were in, up until the battle with that last Daitengu. But what happened after that? How did you become Attendants? Who are you working for?

I need you two to remember. I need to know we can trust you.

[cicadashell]

[The curry has no taste, so Jiro's already annoyed. He was only here for the food and to drop something off. He glares when Kido suggests he's going to lead a discussion. Fuck, no.

He leaves his barely-touched bowl of tasteless curry rice for scavengers, and stalks over to Kido. Jiro shoves the notebook at her with a growl.]

That's everything and what I think about it. You guys figure it out. I'm leaving.

Team Unity

[reveilation]

I think it was made pretty clear during the talk and the fight just how much we're all still strangers, despite being friends in some sense. I haven't fought alongside most of you, so I didn't know how else I could help besides having my Persona attack when he can, and occasionally heal. It definitely wasn't the most efficient way to do it... and it was tough coming up with a plan in the middle of the battle too. Everybody was just... everywhere.

[ And it's nobody's fault. Most of them all came at different times, some of them knew one another from before, and some of them met people early on and just stuck with them the entire time. Kido's guilty of that last one. ]

We call team meetings sometimes, but that's not really getting to know one another. I'm not saying we have to do something like going to the bathhouse every other week either.

[ She can already tell Jiro's going to give her a look, so she cuts him off before he can. ]

But what do you guys think about buying out a place everybody can live together? The castle doesn't have running water or anything, and the Velvet Room is noisy, so maybe something in town. Like Akira was telling me before, there's not a lot of us. Finding a place that'll comfortably fit everybody wouldn't be too much of a stress, and living together, being around one another, little simple things like that will help a lot.

[overstrain]

[ Since Terry can't talk as a dog, Orien might as well contribute somewhat in his place. He doesn't know too much about the Persona and Daitengu business, but he hopes that his input can be useful here at least.

So here's a white talking snake with blue eyes who sounds like a 40-year old human adult male. ]

If people wouldn't be opposed to sharing living space such as bedrooms, perhaps we can expand the already owned property to the backyard.

Re: Team Unity

[toybombs]

Where would we even live? The only place big enough for all of us is the Inn, right?

[Yeah, she's not sold on this at all.]

Isn't it more important for us to know what each other's skillsets are than trying to live together?

CHARACTER POLL

[infiltrationtools]

It's not mandatory, first of all.

[Akira predicted that some people would hit resistance to the whole thing when he was discussing this with Kido over texts the other day, and he was right.]

Some people like where they're staying and don't want to leave. Some people would rather live alone. We don't know if this is possible, but we want to start taking steps to find out. The first part of that is a headcount. If possible, we're going to get a place with extra rooms that will accommodate more people who stumble into Hirajiro, so they don't have to live in the Velvet Room or pay out the ass for the inn.

So if you would be interested in staying in a team house, write your name here.

[He pulls a piece of paper out of his notebook and leaves it on the floor, along with a pencil.]

idk that's it from me

[reveilation]

I think those were the major points I wanted to bring up, so if there's anything else anybody wants to talk about, the stage is yours, nyaaa.

[ ... ]

What the fuck, nyaa...

[ It's bonus time and Kido suddenly looks livid, whipping around and shouting in the direction of the shrine. ]

A CHEAP GIMMICK LIKE THIS ISN'T FUNNY, SO CUT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!!

[ hisssssssssssssss
She's going to stomp over to Terry the Samoyed and bury her face in his fur for the rest of the meeting. Y'all are on your own. ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry the samoyed is just having fun when Kido buries her face into his fluffy fur, being all relaxed. The dog smells like cinnamon. Orien is coiled around the leash that Terry the dog is connected to. He shoots a glance at everyone as if to say "don't tell Kido about Terry". ]

Malasadas

[laconism]

[Akira isn't the only one who made food for the meeting — apparently Red did too???

At the start of the meeting, quietly and without any fanfare, Red sets a large tupperware container down near the curry pot and opens it up, revealing a large assortment of malasadas. Each are lightly coated with cinnamon-sugar and there are ones with filling (chocolate, vanilla, or coconut pudding) and ones without filling. The ones that do contain filling have a small hole in them so you can see exactly what you're getting.

Enjoy, guys.]

[defragment]

[ Malasadaaaaaaas... 45 is still hungry to fill up her ration tank, so she's coming pretty late. She's glad that they're still here and swipes one. ]

I can't believe these have pudding in them... the filling is so sweet~

[ mmmmmmmmmmmmmm ]

this is nothing important

[flowerclips]

[ All I want to say is that Rei is here but as a zombie. Bless Kido and her heart for lugging her all the way out to the castle and sitting her on the throne. She just sits there and stares off into nothing. ]

[ Hi guys, see you next month. :) ]

[laconism]

[Poor Rei... Whenever Red has some spare time, he'll go over to her and feed her curry rice and some malasadas. Pikachu will sit with her, too.]

[yokeye]

[From across the room, in 45's plastic tub, a few spindly tendrils wave at Rei. Can she even see them? Toki doesn't know. He will wait for you, princess.]

Homunculus

[laconism]

[And then once they've finished going over all the important stuff, Red takes the creepy homunculus out of his backpack and holds it up, censoring its tiny dick with his hand.]

I found this, uh... thing in the Daitengu's room after everyone left that night. Does it belong to anyone?

[reveilation]

What the hell is that... nyaaa.

[ She hates that she has to lower her voice just to not nyaa in front of everybody, but what the hell, Red? She waves her hand for him to put it back in his bag. Everybody's seen it. He doesn't need to keep it out here. ]

[overstrain]

[ Terry the samoyed barks and points over at Akira with his paw. ]

bad decisions

[cicadashell]

[At some point during the meeting, near the end probably, Jiro's has snuck off for a minute to grab something he left outside. When he comes back, he's looking for Ellie. He stands near the entrance and waves her over.]

[elliexir]

[ Ellie is late to arrive, jogging a bit to make it to the castle. She puts up a hand to signal "I'm here!! Also hi" before making her way, panting as she comes to a stop. ]

Hey, am I late?