destinystrings | The Silver Key [Closed]

Entry tags:

The Silver Key [Closed]

Where: The Velvet Room
Summary: Someone had a dream and was given an item, then decided to do something about it.
When: June 7th
Warnings: Is someone really gonna try putting the key in Igor's nose?

This wasn't a normal trip to the Velvet Room for a switch of persona or a quest. No, there was a reason behind it, as the three had an item that perhaps could be answered by the residents of the venue. As the glowing blue door is opened, the sounds of life and the city grow quiet.

They appear in one of the many blue and white cabins of the Velvet Train, as the train continues to move around in the air. Soft and comforting music can be heard in the background, calming the souls of those who enter. The windows are open and outside a breathtaking view of a starry night sky.

Well, now it was up to them to decide what to do. Time to run to the bar cabin, or make a plan in this area first?

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Ayumu glances around, confused, freezing at the sight of an older, green haired man standing nearby and a demonic looking.... bird thing.

A Tengu?

The utterance of 'Kiyotaka' makes him more wary still. He knows he looks like his brother, but---

"What's going on here?"

The tengu's presence is easy enough to guess at. He can still recall a time when Taro had explained their involvement in his death. But for Kiyotaka...

No, an apparition that happened to take Kiyotaka's form. He doesn't believe for a moment that it's the true one, but given their current location, that doesn't give him much relief; a fake could be nearly as powerful as the original for all he knew.

...For now, it's best to do what he can, at least. Ever mindful of the Ayumu and Taro who seem to be behind him, he quickly dodges the tengu and aims for "Kiyotaka's" hand, perceiving him as the larger threat at the moment. If he can at least be disabled, it would only make dealing with the tengu that much easier.

When he sees Yaiba move for his weapon, Ayumu's immediately on the defensive-- He follows Yaiba's movements, darting to the side to try to avoid the shot.

He doesn't quite make it, though. As evenly matched as he and Hizumi's reflexes are, he's lucky that the shot only grazes his lower arm instead of shattering his hand. He bites back a muffled yell of pain, fighting the nausea that's invited by his lowered pain threshold, and raises his gun, aims, and fires at Yaiba's shoulder.

Whatever this apparition was, it was violent.

Great. He has to break up the two and do it fast. The Yaiba was the larger threat - maybe? Possibly. He has to pick one, anyway. He lets out a yell and charges Yaiba, trying to tackle him to the ground.

He does an admirable job of avoiding that gunshot, having expected retaliation in the high likelihood that he missed. But what he doesn't expect is for the tengu to bodily tackle him, and he cracks his head on the ground with a cry of pain. The sensation seems to reverberate through his entire spine, and it leaves him stunned for a good moment.

This isn't good... Kiyotaka might not be able to kill him, but that didn't mean he was beyond harm. Damn it, why aren't Ayumu and Taro backing him up?

Ayumu's darting forward with the opening the Tengu gave him, correctly assuming it to be an ally, and is on Yaiba in mere moments with his gun pointed at his head, panting a little from the pain of his injury.

He didn't know what this was, but something that could take on Yaiba's appearance like that--

"Are you some sort of demon?" Hopefully, it only looked like Yaiba. He wasn't sure what they could do if it was an exact copy....

Taro froze for a moment, hearing his heart beating in his ears. "I told you two to cut it out! Why aren't you two listening to me?!"

He rises from the ground and growls, before trying to dart forward to tackle Kirotaka as well. He's not made for this, but he doesn't want Hizumi or Ayumu to have to deal with either of these two.

Was this some kind of joke? Even with the gun pointed at his head, Hizumi doesn't even bat an eyelash. After all, this isn't the God that could kill him. There's absolutely no reason for him to fear death at this man's hands.

"You should know the answer to that better than anyone, Kiyotaka."

He's hardly got the words out when the tengu turns on God instead, leaving Hizumi blinking in confusion. He'd acted like they were allied, but if he was going for Kiyotaka as well...

Either way, it's an opportunity, and not one that Hizumi's about to pass up. He scrambles to his feet and begins firing again even as he backs off, not particularly caring if he hits Kiyotaka or the tengu - either way, they're both clearly enemies as far as he can tell.

Ayumu hits the ground hard, landing heavily under the weight of the Tengu. He's scrambling to try to get out from under it, but it's too slow going for his tastes.

The words grated-- Whatever this thing was, it kept calling him his brother's name. How much did this 'copy' of Yaiba have of the original? Was that even possible? He tries to shove the bird demon off and away, attempting to get some room to get out of the way of the shot he sees Yaiba aiming for him.

"Stop mistaking me for my brother!"

Taro howls in pain as the shot hits him in the back of the shoulder. But - hang on. His 'brother'? But if that isn't - wait. ... Shit.

"Ayumu?"

It's hard to concentrate. There's a reason he's not a fighter, and shitty pain tolerance is one of those reasons.

Upon hearing those words, Hizumi comes to the same conclusion Taro does. But wait, if that's Ayumu--

He feels a chill run down his spine. Without a second thought, he drops his gun, putting his hands up in a gesture of surrender. If it's just a fake Kiyotaka, fine; he can't be killed anyway, so it doesn't matter. But if it's actually Ayumu under some kind of an illusion...

That gun is suddenly looking a lot more dangerous.

"...This is Hizumi." It feels somewhat foolish, stating the obvious when he can clearly see Ayumu and Taro behind him even still. But there's also no reason for Kiyotaka to say such a thing; those words were definitely something Ayumu would utter, not he.

Ayumu stares at the Tengu and the older, green haired man, absorbing their current predictament. 'Yaiba'-- Hizumi rather, had called him Kiyotaka, which meant.....

Well this was a tricky situation they'd stepped into. He lowers the gun he'd been in the process of raising, making sure the motion is slow and obvious, glancing from the bleeding Tengu to the not quite 'Devil'.

"....Yeah, it's me." It seemed like Caroline hadn't just been talking about the architecture when she'd said this would be a dangerous journey.

"....You ok Taro?" It's a guess, but he has a feeling it's right based on their numbers.

"I'll live." Probably. He can get it looked at when they get out of here. He doesn't trust using their Persona in this place, not when it's this confusing. He stands, looking at the two of them. It's a pretty good illusion... he can't even tell that it's an illusion at all. That's kind of worrying, but this place is weird anyway.

... A thought occurs to him, and he takes a deep breath. "What do I look like?"

"...A tengu."

His voice is flat. It's all starting to come together, bit by bit. Taro is terrified of tengu - they'd killed him in the past, after all. And while fear didn't play as much into Ayumu's relationship with his so-called brother, even the simple knowledge of what that man was prepared to do to get what he wanted wasn't exactly pleasant.

So logically, that would leave him with...

"Since Ayumu's Kiyotaka, I'm guessing that would make me Yaiba right now?"

It seemed to be a recurring theme in this world...

When they finally stop attacking and start talking, they can hear a faint clapping as it grows louder until gun-helmet man talks out, looking rather pleased at them.

But what was he doing there?

Before they can speak he throws them each a card.

"YOUR HEART." "NOW YOU" "SEE WITH"

...wait dang he hadn't thrown to them in order, and mentally kicked himself. All of this, and he messed up. Silently a hand rise to his the helmet as he slapped where his forehead would be.

Ayumu grimaces at Hizumi's statement, nodding. The fact that this was a recurring theme wasn't exactly lost on him, either. He was kind of glad he couldn't see what Hizumi and Taro saw-- while he had spent a good portion of his life viewing his brother as an ideal, he didn't want to be him. Especially not now, knowing what he knew.

The clapping draws his attention away from his thoughts, quickly enough that he catches his card when it flies his way, staring down at it blankly. What was he doing here?

"You followed us in here?"

Edited 2014-06-20 18:40 (UTC)

Taro shudders, falling silent. He doesn't want to think of tengu, doesn't want to deal with them, doesn't want to be anywhere near them. He wants to tear this illusion off, but he doesn't know how. He's about to say something, but -

... He catches the card and glances over at the other two. "Now you see with your heart? Right, thanks. Good to know that wanting to pee myself at the sight of tengu is part of my 'heart'." His tone is flat, devoid of his usual amusement. He's really not happy about this.

Hizumi catches the card with ease, glancing over his and then at the others. "Great, thanks." His voice remains dry. "So what's with the sudden appearance? Got anything else to help us out against illusions?"

Since apparently those are a thing here. He's not sure why he was surprised to begin with; it's not the first time this world has used his fears against him, illusory or not.

He shakes a finger at them. Tut, tut, like people of the Velvet Room spell out things for you. Plus he needs to act cool again with that mistake, Caroline would never let him down.

First he points to Hizumi, then with a small gesture he does a hand motion over his helmet.

Do you get it now?

...probably not but maybe you'd get it on the first try! He's routing for you.

"Better yet, do you have something that's going to get us through this place?" A hint at least would be nice.

"I'm guessing these illusions are designed to keep us from getting through here somehow, from your applause." He crosses his arms, trying not to visualize his brother making the same motion with some degree of unease.

... Taro thinks for a minute, letting the others take care of the immediate questions. "Is this some kind of 'conquer your fears' thing?" Probably. But he didn't expect this to be straightforward.

"Those seem like good guesses," is all Hizumi will reply with. He's mostly focused on the gesture William just made. Was that supposed to be significant?

With no better ideas, he holds the card up to his face, his expression dubious as he looks at it intently. Perhaps it will offer a clue?

SEE WITH

...No, it just looks like a card up close. But William seems to be nodding at his idea. Someone's off to a good start, the problem is what he's supposed to hold up like that to, well..see with.

Maybe if the Velvet room members would actually be upfront about what they are doing, there wouldn't be as many problems. Then again, what would they be like if they couldn't learn?

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The Silver Key [Closed]

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/Conch of Mod Summoning!

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Crap apparently my response didn't go through

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