003 [Action + Video]

[phantom_envoy]

[action, anywhere in the city, open to all]
'Scuse me, pardon me!

[Perhaps you are relaxing in your room.  Or perhaps you're enjoying a dip in the pool or taking a breather in the library.  Regardless of the activity in question, the peaceful atmosphere is suddenly broken by the intrusion of someone in a black and white costume carrying a knapsack filled with packages flying through -- yes, straight through.  Straight through the wall and out the outer side, tossing out a hurried note of apology along the way.

...In the moments of stunned disbelief afterwards, the girl sticks her head back through the wall and waves a bit to catch your attention.  As if it isn't already caught.]

Actually, do you know a 'Dennis'?  I'm looking for a Dennis.  Or -- maybe this is a P, I can't really tell, but I can't imagine anyone naming their kid that unless they really hated the thought of having kids.  ...It's just kind of mean.

[Before too much time can be spent pondering on the dilemma of D vs. P, Phantom Girl thrusts the package she's holding back into her sack and rummages around.]

Oh, I might have one for you, too, actually.  Did you order anything from a... 'Nyx's Nightclub' lately?

[Phantom Girl had found a day job, apparently.]

[video, public]
[Some two hours later, an irritated Phantom Girl appears on the screen.]

I can't believe it!  They're docking my pay this week!  I mean, I don't need it, but that's incredibly unfair.

I thought the point of being a courier was to get the job done as fast as you can; what's the use of plodding about all over the place reading the street signs?  It's way faster to do it my way; all of you got your deliveries faster than you were expecting, right?  I mean, it's not like you guys have anything to hide in your rooms.  And it's not like I opened a package or anything - that's the only privacy concern they should be worried about.

[She continues to stew and mutter aimlessly for a few moments before striding closer to the screen and pointing at it.]

...Seriously, though, did one of you snitch?

((OoC Note: No toilet/shower shenanigans, please!))

Comments

[terminally_clever]

[Phantom Girl is in this badass looking place, with the giant clock face and the books everywhere and whatnot. And of course, the huge computer terminal that Fumi's sitting in front of.]

Hm. Energy fields, then?

[phantom_envoy]

If you want me to break them, sure. You need material that's anti-Bgztlian - so... dimensionally pervasive. Good luck finding anything like that in this city.

[Phantom Girl tries not to sound smug as she floats up towards the clock face.]

Although I mean -- that big barrier they've got up does the trick, so someone's gotta know something about dimensional technology here.

You know, I've never seen a more ominous way of telling time. I'd be afraid the hands would fall on me every time I walked past.

[terminally_clever]

That's all right, I like a challenge.

[Fumi smiles, content to leave that issue alone.]

Well, the Chief always did have something of a flair for the dramatic, I suppose.

[phantom_envoy]

What is this facility for? I'm assuming it's one of those that were drawn along to this city with you - something you used back home?

[Phantom Girl continues to float around the room examining various oddities.]

[terminally_clever]

It's a secret government research facility.

[Emphasis on the secret, not that Phantom Girl seems to care.]

[phantom_envoy]

Hm!

You should probably do a better job of keeping people out, then.

[Phantom Girl is not above being purposefully provocative as she hovers next to a sensitive looking instrument and decides that phasing into it would probably be a bad idea.]

What are you researching? Demons? Persona?

[terminally_clever]

Currently, both. And if you're going to poke around in here so casually, you could at least volunteer to be a research subject.

[phantom_envoy]

I don't volunteer for things until I know what they entail. I find it adds to my estimated life span.

[She drops quickly back to the floor next to Fumi with an arched eyebrow.]

What kind of research did you have in mind?

[terminally_clever]

Unfortunately I don't have the right sort of equipment to test your dimensional abilities, or I'd suggest that. But I could always use another set of readings associated with the use of Persona.

[phantom_envoy]

...

Would you believe I still don't have mine?

It's like the universe is conspiring to put me against only monsters I can handle just fine with my normal powers.

((or to drop threads))

[terminally_clever]

Perfect.

[Fumi's smile quirks up just a bit at the edges.]

One of the things I'm missing is data on the state of one's mental and physical activity during the initial awakening of a Persona. I have plenty of readings concerning summoning one afterward, but that's something I've never been able to pin down.

[phantom_envoy]

...

[That smile is perhaps just a tad bit off-putting.]

Oh, well, hey, look at the time; deliveries to make and people to meet. Why don't we take a raincheck on this?

[While she goes out in the middle of the night and fights things until her Persona awakens.]

[terminally_clever]

It's not as if I'm planning to cut your head open. I'm a research scientist, not a neurosurgeon.

[phantom_envoy]

...I actually don't think those two things are mutually exclusive, but OK.

So what does 'research' entail?

[terminally_clever]

I have a machine here that's set up to monitor every conceivable vital statistic of someone who's hooked up to it. It's the result of my research at home combined with some additional help from the technology available to me here as part of Hinoto-Ri's government research branch, as well as some cannibalized hospital equipment I was able to requisition.

[She gestures to the corner, where there is a large machine of unspecified construction sitting because the mun knows jack-all about technology. Suffice it to say it is large and impressive, with wires and lights and all sorts of things you'd expect of the Frankenstein baby of a CT scanner / fMRI machine / electroencephalogram / whathaveyou.]

I've been working with another research volunteer up until now gathering readings related to Persona use, spirit shamanism, and demon summoning, but I think in order to really get down to the root of understanding the phenomenon, I'll need to make those measurements on someone who's awakening their Persona for the first time. The problem I'm running into is how to have someone connected to the device while experiencing the sort of mental or physical stress normally associated with the Persona's initial emergence without somehow also breaking the machine.

[phantom_envoy]

[Phantom Girl bites on her lower lip for a few moments and nods slowly at Fumi's pseudo-explanation. After a few moments, she drifts over to the machine to give it a cursory prod.]

...I'm not being strapped to this thing while you lead monsters of scaling difficulty into the room. Just to clear that up in advance.

[She was sure Fumi had a much better idea than that, anyway.]

I'm thinking you'll need to make a portable version. ...Or you'll need to figure out how Personas awaken and artificially induce the process, but that's kind of chicken and egg, huh?

[terminally_clever]

I wouldn't use such an unpredictable and dangerous method in our headquarters building to begin with. Unfortunately, the only other thing I can really come up with is more or less indistinguishable from physical torture. Needless to say, that option is off the table as well.

[Thank Protag-kun for that, because that wasn't an opinion she held before meeting him.]

It was difficult enough to build this version. Trying to miniaturize it would take months at best.

[phantom_envoy]

...Right. Because the awakening of the Persona happens when enough stress is induced. That usually means fighting a monster beyond your normal limits - or what you thought of, torture.

[Phantom Girl turns back towards Fumi.]

I mean, I'm sure we can think of all kinds of stressers, but I'm not that interested in science.

[terminally_clever]

I suppose there's always the idea of emotional overload, but to induce that sort of thing artificially would likely skirt the same lines.

[phantom_envoy]

It looks like it's a dead end, then.

[She had to question why Fumi would think an immobile machine would be at all helpful in observing the awakening of a Persona. ...Unless she had really been a fan of the whole 'torture' idea until recently.]

...I mean, I suppose I could overclock my body by staying phased too long.

[terminally_clever]

[Not really a fan so much as she cared more about the result than the test subject. And the machine is really being repurposed from research it is useful and appropriate for. But of course, none of that is being said out loud anyway.]

That would work if not for the fact that you'd phase right through the monitoring equipment while it's trying to take readings. It doesn't do much good if you can't stay hooked up to it.

[phantom_envoy]

I can phase things I'm in contact with. It's why my costume and these packages aren't sitting in a pile outside your building right now. ...Electronics tend to not appreciate the trip very much, though.

[Still probably a bad idea, all in all.]

[terminally_clever]

Hm. Probably best to abandon this line of thinking entirely, then. It's only recently that I've gotten it to stop exploding just from the stress of running normally. I'd rather not take unnecessary chances.

[phantom_envoy]

...

Yeah, why don't you work on troubleshooting that and you can ring me up after say, a month or two of going explosion-free?

[terminally_clever]

I think what I may need to do is advertise for a research subject. Full disclosure about the dangers involved, and that it will almost certainly involve voluntarily subjecting oneself to physical harm.