destinystrings | The 13th Hour

Who: EVERYONE who is in the Scorpio Event and not doing the boss battle.
Where: The Entire City
Summary: 13th hour. The Perfect Link's Mutation Skill is unlocked and now people have a chance against the swarming Scorpions. Unfortunately, for some, this just means the paranoia hit a new low....you can group and join each other's posts and try to hold the city down and protect everyone!
Warnings: NPCs, Attacking, Battles.

13th Hour.

The city was in chaos. As it hit, the population attempted to return home, but it was too late. The scorpions continued to swarm, the police force trying to help as many as they could. You might even spot the Anoli once in a while...although they were only helping those that had Persona. Regardless, they were, at least, doing something.

The corpses of millions of scorpions were littered in the city streets. But once the 13th hour hit...the remaining ones mutated. But that was not the worst of it...

Oh no...

The Scorpios of the city now had a Scorpion tail dragging behind them, capable of causing Poison and Paralyzing damage. On a normal human, this was already terrible enough...

On a Persona User....they needed to be taken down.

Quickly.

And yet even in this Hour, there is hope. Power surges in a select few, and with a new skill at their tips, the battle may be won yet. But remember your mission; you came to protect this city. That includes the people living here. With so much chaos, you'll also need to help them and reduce the number of deaths as much as possible...and try not too look too closely at a looming figure in the Scorpio Ward...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Something is off. If Minako were more focused on studying her brother than the battle, this would be incredibly obvious, but as it is the most glaring change is his new Persona. She's about to ask about his visit to the Velvet Room when he turns and she catches a glimpse of his eye... and the eerie smile.

"Your face! Minato, what happened?"

There's a brief second of blank incomprehension before something clicks for him and he raises one hand to his eye.

"Oh, this happened a couple of days ago. No bigs."

There's a brief pause as he shakes some ashen remnants off his sword, looking critically at the dead scorpions around them before voicing his thoughts.

"You think these are edible?"

"What?" And not even just about the scorpion statement. She's not even sure where to begin with that. "There's no way... It looked fine this morning!"

...He hadn't been wearing his uniform when she'd last seen him, either. Nor had he been acting oddly, like he was under the influence of the illness affecting everyone else. But his strange behavior, the injury, the uncharacteristic talkativeness... It all clicks together, and Minako takes a step backward, her expression hardening as her fingers tighten around the naginata.

"....Who are you?"

An expressive shrug.

"Don't really know myself."

Spinning around, he drops into a crouch and slices through a nearby scorpion. Planting the tip of the blade in the ground and propping the hilt on his shoulder, he looks up at you and keeps speaking.

"The name I sign on the contract keeps changing, y'know. I spent three years answering to Yukari Takeba!"

Levering himself up with Laevateinn, he briefly stretches his arms out.

"Nobody ever commented on it, though."

"...What are you talking about?" is basically the only reply she can come up with, before another scorpion tries to leap on her from behind. She hears the sound of it scuttling before it can and whirls just in time to slice it cleanly with the naginata. It falls to the pavement with a huge gash in its side, still twitching.

She pulls out the weapon and stabs it again for good measure.

Blank stare for a second before he starts speaking again in a tone of voice that suggests he is pointing out something blatantly obvious.

"Uh...you know, the contract? The one Pharos always has us sign at the start of the year?"

He summons Eurydice again and impales a far-off scorpion with a Poison Arrow attack before continuing.

"It's the first part of the loop, remember?"

"I remember -" She stops long enough to summon Orpheus, sending him careening into the approaching pack with Vicious strike. "I remember the contract, but I don't know what you mean by 'loop.'"

And now he sounds just plain baffled.

"You know, end of the year, dying on the roof, then waking up back at the start of the year?"

He's waving one hand around in vague circles to illustrate his point.

"One thousand, six hundred, and seventy five years? No free will?"

The tone of his voice is becoming the slightest bit frantic.

"You're me, how can you possibly forget this stuff while I still have to re-remember?"

His voice cracks on the last word, his agitation clearly and plainly visible in the way he carries himself.

Seeing someone who looks so much like Minato acting so upset is... honestly, heartwrenching. She has to stop the urge to step forward and hug him, because it's the middle of a battle and they can't let down their guards. That, and he's behaving so erratically she's not sure how he'd react.

"Listen... I don't think I'm who you think I am." Who he thinks she is... now she really isn't sure. The story he's given is unbelievable - repeating that year over a thousand times? But it's clear that this isn't the Minato she knows and with all the business with parallel universes lately, that's the only explanation that makes sense to her.

"You - Minato is my brother. We're twins. He went through the journey in his world, and I went through it in mine, and we both woke up here after it finished."

He's staring at a point just over your head, his eyes scanning back and forth frantically, but whatever he's looking for doesn't seem to be there. He lowers his gaze to look you directly in the eyes, his own wide and betraying a great inner turmoil.

"You aren't...me, are you."

A welter of emotions flash through his face before he settles on a slightly too wide grin, lifting Laevateinn into position and facing towards the scorpions.

"After this is over, let's have a chitchat!"

The blue glow plays up around his feet again as he calls on Eurydice, having her throw a Bufula at a scorpion that was slightly too close for comfort.

"...Right."

She's always been good at putting aside feelings to deal with the present moment. And this present moment is full of scorpions.

She can worry about Minato and whatever world he's come from later. Although before he gets too far involved in the fight again, she summons Lakshmi and casts Diarahan on him. He may not be concerned about his old injuries, but she still is.

The 13th Hour - GENERAL LOG

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