destinystrings | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Misery, OPEN
Where: The Rooftop of Libra, at night. May result in a 13th Hour Thumping session later, if desired.
Summary: Even talented witches need to clear their heads.
Warnings: Potential Misery snideness.
It was all well and good to talk about doing something, but Misery has been forced to admit after a few days of this that she's mostly just going in circles.

The astrology stuff hasn't helped. Certainly, there's no easy "snap your fingers" solution to the effects of the zodiac on people. Normally, one could probably cut off the effects by just not believing in it, but a fat lot of good that had done back during that night considering most people weren't even aware their birth signs were related.

The search for baku wasn't working too well either. She'd been out and about blasting demons, but none of them had looked like the one she was looking for, and none of the components she'd found seemed to have any effect on the subconscious mind. Which had meant far too frequently dreams forcing her to think about days she'd rather not think about.

That's not really an issue tonight. She can't sleep.

She sits on the edge of the building she lives in, looking out over the city. So many buildings. Mother had told her the island had been like that once. Full of buildings, bustling crowds, life. All destroyed in a night. Such power had fascinated her once. Now she just wants to forget she had anything to do about it. And her own brain isn't even letting her do that.

"Blast it all, what will it take to be free for real," she mutters under her breath.

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If Atsuro had happened to be in the vicinity and had managed to mysteriously sneak up on her unobserved, he would announce his presence at this point with some clever remark about 'what free cookies weren't enough' or possibly a reference to a certain killer whale who had once thought the same thing. Probably. Who knew what killer whales really thought about?

Instead, Atsuro announces his presence by accidentally pressing the wrong button on the elevator and being too busy playing with his COMP to notice until he stepped out onto the rooftop.

"Whoa. ............We have a roof?"

Oh hey look. ~~An emotional distraction.~~

"Why yes! I think you'll find it's quite useful in keeping the rain out, you know. Ho ho ho!" It's so easy to slip back into this personality. She welcomes it.

"I meant more the part where we were allowed to go up and sit on the edge tempting gravity." Atsuro steps out from the elevator as it closes behind him. It's hard to see in the darkness, but the voice was unmistakably Misery's. The 'ho ho ho' tended to help with identification.

"I guess gravity's not something you worry too much about, though."

"I do find it strictly optional, yes." She smirks. "So what brings you up here so late at night, hmm? The 13th hour is nigh, after all."

"I'm banking on the hopes that gravity is mandatory for most of them." Atsuro shrugs as he draws nearer, his eyes beginning to adjust to the darkness. "If any Avians show up, they'll be easy to pick off from this height, anyway."

He glances out at the same view Misery was admiring, keeping a cautious distance from the edge. "Can't sleep? Or is that optional for witches, too?"

"If gravity is not mandatory for them now, it will be soon enough! Oh ho ho ho!"

Her good cheer dampens a bit at his question. "I needed some fresh air, is all. I have been cooped up for a while researching things. Even those such as me can use a break."

"I know the feeling."

A day spent in a library researching astrology and all he had gotten for his troubles was a shiny new library card. ...Though getting to know Arturia better certainly hadn't been a downside.

"Hey -- what was that you were looking for earlier; bakus? Made any progress along those lines?"

She sighs in frustration. "Not even remotely. I thought that Narumi Detective Agency might help, but so far they've been perfectly useless." She grunts. "A pity. Such a creature would be a great advance for my research."

Mostly by getting her brain to shut up so she can focus on it.

"How about you? How goes your own investigations?"

"The astrology stuff?" Atsuro pauses before glancing down towards his messenger bag and flipping it open. After a few moments of digging around, he hands Misery a gossip rag.

"Here. This pretty much sums it up." ...It was too dark to see, but she could probably guess what was covered inside. "I'm like, totally gonna fall in love with a Taurus cause their rock-hard stability balances out the melancholy of a Capricorn under Venus?"

She blinks, and flits through it. "Oh my, how scandalous. I didn't think this was your sort of reading material! Oh deary deary me." She smirks, and passes it back. "Although I suppose you're commenting that there's some sort of compability issue related to the astrology signs."

"Yeah, actually." Atsuro nods as he shoves the magazine back into his bag.

"Someone suggested that the people who were affected had compatibility issues with the Scorpio sign. From what I've been able to tell, it's hard to get a clear picture of which signs are supposed to go with which - the Chinese zodiac is a lot more blatant about this kind of thing."

He shrugs. It was still a lead to follow up on, anyway. "I'll try to find more definitive books later."

"Hmm. Could be significant. It may also allow us to understand if we see anybody else besides the upcoming birth zodiacs acting strange. Though it would be better if we could block the effect altogether." She looks out. "Ridiculous, isn't it? To lose control simply by the fate of the stars. What cruel God of this world decided THAT, hmm?"

"Maybe that's the wrong way to think about it." Atsuro still isn't courageous enough to sit on the edge of an ungated roof, but he'll sit on the ground just shy of it. "There's something out there that's responsible for this; no doubt about it. And they chose the Zodiac as... as a vehicle for their plans. Maybe it had to be the Zodiac, but still..."

He allows his thoughts to settle in the still night air as he leans back to gaze up at the stars. "We've got to believe we can gain control, right?"

She stares at him, for a bit. And then... laughs. "Ho ho ho! You're absolutely correct! I knew I kept you around for a reason!" You might get the feeling you've increased her trust in you. Just a little. "The question is, what IS the agenda? Hard to know where to begin looking on that."

"...?"

Atsuro sits up and blinks at Misery for a moment. ...Apparently, he had said something correct there.

"The only coordinated enemy we've got here is the Anoli. The agenda there is to make a world for only Persona users, right? This doesn't seem up their alley..." A frown as he considers. "I don't think it's butterfly-mask testing us, either... It's a little too extreme for that."

"How positively obnoxious. Life would be so much easier if we could simply find the root and extract it." She sighs. "Always more work to do, I suppose. No rest for the wicked, eh?"

"Or the shining virtuous heroes of light, either." Atsuro shrugs good-naturedly as he turns his gaze back upwards at the stars.

"Eh, I don't think I'll be making any fantastic breakthroughs in the next fifteen minutes, anyway. Work can wait for the morning."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Although if we're not careful watching the time, we'll be putting in overtime anyway. Ho ho."

She looks up at the stars. The temptation flits through her head, briefly, to talk to him about something more. But... no, such things are better left to oneself. Makes you look less weak. Still...

"Hmm. What do you make of this world, anyway? Rather fascinating, isn't it?"

"The novelty's worn off a little by now." Atsuro shrugs to himself. "Wake up, go to work, play some games, fight demons or go to bed early on alternate days. ...You can get used to anything if you give it enough time."

He continues after a brief pause. "But yeah. ...Fascinating is right - apart from history and astrology, there's still a lot of questions to ask. Both about this world and about... why we're here. ...What did that guy see in us? We've got these powers that are representative of... something, but what does it really mean?"

She looks at her nails. "Hard to say, really. Whoever it is doesn't seem to be particularly picky. Who really understands what goes on in the heads of the powerful? I swear there's not an organized thought in their brains."

She shrugs. "Power's a fool's game anyway."

((Sorry for the wait! I went on mini-hiatus for a bit. Feel free to ignore if you'd rather drop the thread!))

A brief frown as he considers Misery's response.

"Yeah... I can't disagree, but... I was thinking more along the lines of... something else."

It was hard to express how he felt about the situation. 'But what does it mean?' was as clear as he was going to get, and he figured Misery would get sick of that question pretty quickly.

"Anyway. I guess a part of me is ready to go back home to my nice normal world by now."

"Who cares about meaning? It puts far too many worry lines in one's forehead." She shrugs.

She looks out over the city. "Yes, well, personally I needed a relocation anyway." She adds, almost to herself, "Didn't have much at home anyway."

He considers, for a moment, venturing some hypotheses about her world and her background based on what he's gleaned out of conversation with her. After a few moments, he decides that he would prefer not to spend the rest of his time here as a frog if he could help it. Best to leave it be for a moment.

"...Yeah. This has to be a new beginning for some of us here. ...I've met a few who've died at home, you know. This is all they've got left."

Although Anant resided within the Pisces Ward, it was too much to ask for them to stay in the right place like a normal person. No, Anant was in a wandering mood, roaming through the streets, going into random buildings without invitation - no doubt they were going to have whatever passed for police called on their ass in the near future - or even snooping about in the other apartment complex.

As in, Libra.

Anant liked tall places, and the apartment complexes were amongst the tallest of buildings. Logic dictated that Anant would go to the very top of the tower, so to speak, and that was what happened.

That masked, bizarre cultist? They stepped out onto the roof, head tilted up to observe the stars with their hands pressed against their mask in a mockery of cupping their cheeks.

"They're even brighter the higher you go! Fantastic...the sky is so clear here. Remarkable! Oh..."

Anant noticed the lady they had spoke to over the network, and they approached with good cheer.

"Good evening! Have I intruded upon your brooding?"

Misery lacks omnipotence, but she recognizes that cheerfully and ludicrously naive voice anywhere. Tch. "Brooding? Hardly. I simply needed some fresh air, is all. This is the best place for it."

So this is the mystery cult leader, eh? What a bizarre countenance. She's seen stranger people, though. "I did not realize you lived in this building. I would've brought cookies." Ha ha ha, no she wouldn't.

"I do not live here. I am snooping."

...well, least he's honest and self-aware.

"But you like the stars too? Glorious. They soothe all mental frustrations and confusions, just by their mere presence..."

"Oh my, aren't we honest? I hope that honesty doesnt' get you shot sometime. Ho ho ho." Geez louise, who actually SAYS that?

She raises an eyebrow. "I suppose you could say that. Personally I just like them because they're brigh and far away enough not to be involved in your business." Misery's blunt too, but definitely not very honest.

"They oversee your actions, but do not interfere. A silent guardian, perhaps?"

Anant stepped closer, their arms idly swinging in a childish manner as their head cocked to the side. Yellow eyes glittered brightly in the eyeslits of the mask.

"You're an interesting person. I'd like to pick your brain."

"Ch." That would require Misery to believe anybody watched over her but yourself. "What a hopeless romantic."

She eyes him disdainfully. "Unfortunately, I'm not particularly interested in allowing you to pick it. I like to keep my brains to myself."

"Sharing is caring," Anant said, and there was nothing mocking in their tone. "Perhaps I should allow you to have pieces of me as a gesture of goodwill? That is how this goes, yes? Share a piece of yourself, receive a piece of them, etcetera..."

Damnit. "You really are aggravatingly oblivious, aren't you? Trading a brain for a brain would require me to have any interest in you to begin with. Which I don't."

"Okay," Anant replied, utterly unruffled. "Then I will merely observe you. That is how I gather my information anyway."

And then Anant suddenly became very still, almost like a statue - with the large coat on it was impossible to determine if they were even breathing, the yellow glint behind their mask intent upon Misery.

What. The Hell. "Do I even get any say in this little act of invasion of privacy?!" Why do the really powerful ones always have to be so... self-centered?

Edited 2012-11-15 07:46 (UTC)

"Am I invading your privacy?" Anant asked, their tone slightly put-out. "My apologies. I shall hide behind the door out of sight, then. Is that better?"

Sadly, they were not being sarcastic.

"It would be BETTER if you weren't staring at me like a frog!" Urrgh. She's seriously tempted to fly away from here, and she LIVES here.

"..."

There was a long pause where Anant stared blankly at Misery, before letting out a small groan and lifting their hands up to clutch at their hair.

"Aaaa...I see... I'm being rude, aren't I?" Anant's tone becomes quick and hurried, words tripping over each other, "I still don't understand the rules of human manners and conversational cues but that is no excuse oh dear I shouldn't have been so rude but I really wish to observe so what does one do-"

Abruptly Anant turned away, their hands dropping to their sides. "My apologies."

She taps her foot, scowling. Urgh. She's not sure what's worse, how aggravatingly naive he is, how rude... or how much like a beaten puppy he looks right now.

She's been aggressive in the past. Lord knows she beat up on that idiot Balrog plenty of times. But Balrog could take it, because nothing ever seemed to chip that detestedly cheerful mood of his. This guy, however...

She turns her head, grumping. "...Really, how are you so dense about the way people work anyway? You're a GOD, or so you claim. Did you not interact with humans at all?"

"I do. But the humans I am used to are different."

Anant was still facing away from Misery, their back facing her. This was probably rude, but Anant was mentally flailing on what the correct thing to do was. She didn't want to be stared at, but back to someone is rude, so, which was it? Maybe they should stand so their side is facing Misery...?

Nnnh?!?

"The differences are good though. Humans are different on an individual level, but environment plays a great part in shaping their reactions and perspective. If I interact only with those who come from the same environment, the same difficulties, then obviously I will become used to a certain pattern of response."

Anant cautiously half-turns.

"So. This is really expanding my knowledge, which makes me imitate happiness. I am gathering information on how humans react depending on the differences of their upbringing, parentage, and teachings. It is as fascinating as it is frustrating."

She frowns. "Imitate" happiness? "...Tell me. Do you, in fact, feel any real emotion at all?" It would explain an awful lot about his lack to grasp things like atmosphere.

"..."

There was a little pause at that, and Anant tilted their head this way and that as if in deep consideration. It was a difficult question to answer!

"Yes and no. I do not feel emotions as humans do, but I get little slips of them on occasion," Anant pressed their hands against their mask, letting out a pleased little noise, "The more I observe humans, the more likely I am to learn how to feel! A species that drown in such passion and vibrancy can be imitated if one is determined enough to!"

"'Learn' to feel? Truly? Feeling isn't a learnt thing, you nit. If you don't already feel something, you're not going to feel it." Tch. Better to set him straight now, she thinks.

On the other hand, she can't really bare to see that horrible hangdog look again. It's aggravating. "Although... perhaps you should focus more on why you have these... 'slips.' Someone who cannot feel except on occasion? Rather peculiar, don't you think?"

"A bit," Anant agreed, their body rocking back slightly as they cupped their chin in thought. "Truthfully, these slips only occur in moments where - things get hazy in those times, so I cannot tell you much about them. Last time it happened I felt what I believe to be rage."

Their voice dropped a little, becoming eerily flat. "...I do not want to focus on that. I prefer to focus more on watching humans instead. Imitation is fun."

Well. That's reassuring. "I DO hope you left a little of the place intact after your last emotional experience." A God that can only remember rage? Not a good sign, really.

She sighs. "Well bully for you then. Imitate to your hearts content, I guess. Just don't expect it to MEAN much in the long run."

"I don't. I know imitation and falseness detracts the value somewhat, but I still wish to try," Anant said, clasping their hands before their chest. "Humans try and try even when things are hopeless, and I wish to do the same!"

They lowered their hands, tilting their head slightly. "I thank you for this interesting conversation."

"Interesting. Yes. That's one word for it, I suppose."

Whether she likes it or not, she's beginning to think she should keep an eye out on this one. Like far too many she's run into in this city, honestly.

"I will be watching you," Anant said, oblivious to how threatening that sounded. "Out of sight though, so you do not feel uncomfortable."

They turned away.

"I shall leave you to your star-gazing."

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