destinystrings | [Game Opening, Part 1 - What Souls Here May Bring]

The drawstrings cut,
my hollow ebony stained wood plomps to the floor—
THUD

Eyes open, souls recollect.
The new me, erect.

I make my own decisions, have my own priorities,
have my own thoughts.

No external force taps into me—
Freedom.
- Jana Bielecki
Who: (Everyone OPEN LOG)
Where: (City Hall)
Summary: (You've just arrived in the city. Welcome.)
Warnings: (Intro logs are pretty warnable.)
Style: (The text is in prose, but feel free to write back in action tags if you feel more comfortable.)

They always say the first day on a new job is always the hardest.

But tell me...did those tasks include being taken from your own homeworld, dumped into a city you didn't recognize, meeting a man dressed in the purest of whites with a butterfly mask, to be bestowed the power of Persona, and then having some Men in Black lead you to the city hall saying you were expected?

...

...at least your things are apparently safe in your new apartments?

...

...looks like you might be here for a while.

What a way to start the first of September...

As they usher the last of you in, you realize that they've been preparing this for quite a while. There is a small table with food on the right, mixed cuisine (although the main theme seems to be Japanese dishes). Some strange computer program appears next to you and seems to be translating what you are saying so those before you understand. Language barriers? Don't be silly!

Most of the men ignore you after that. You are expected to mingle amongst yourselves a bit before the main 'show' starts, it seems....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"More or less."

There's that whole part where you need to confront your own Shadow (well, he didn't, but...) and everything, but he left that part out. He didn't know if that would be the case here, and he didn't want to freak the poor kid out.

"..."

Atsuro sighs heavily and lets his head droop.

"And I thought things back home were getting weird. OK, so we've got these magic soul monster things, and they fight... real monsters. Shadows. ...Are Shadows kinda like demons at all?"

Don't worry, Atsuro; you'll understand when you summon yours for the first time. Yu cracked a faint smile, before shaking his head.

"Sort of," he answered. "It's... complicated."

He gives a shrug as he straightens up, trying to be good-humored about the whole thing.

"Hah... Nothing in life is ever easy, that's for sure. Well. ...I mean, they've brought us to this hall to explain more, right? I probably shouldn't worry too much about it now..."

"Mm," Yu replied, nodding. "We just need to wait for them to explain everything."

"Thanks for trying to explain, anyway." He nods his appreciation. "My name is Atsuro Kihara - I'm from Tokyo."

"Narukami Yu," he introduced. "I was living in Inaba before this."

"Inaba - the old province? I've never been up that way myself. Guess I don't really even leave Tokyo all that often." Atsuro shrugs. "It's probably another... parallel world, anyway, given yours has magic TVs."

"Maybe. It seems there are a number of people from different worlds."

Hell, he swears he saw and elf before, and lets not forget how much he fan geeked over the massive robot guy.

"...It would be nice to find someone from my Tokyo, you know? But I guess it's just as well." A shadow flits briefly across his face.

...oh. Oh. Oh he knows that feeling.

"...you haven't seen any of your friends here?"

Given that he has about four close friends and maybe ten odd acquaintances left alive, the odds were pretty slim, anyway. Atsuro shakes his head.

"...Heh, I should go complain. They grabbed me when they could've gotten someone a lot more useful."

...oh boy. This was setting off warning bells in his head. If this place had anything like the Midnight Channel, he would need to be on his toes. He could already tell he would need to help some people accept the Shadows of themselves.

"We're here for a reason," he replied.

"Aw, thanks, I don't need a pep talk. I just have this one friend who, uh. Let's say he's destined for great things. And another one who's pretty much on the track to be a Catholic saint or something."

He had never really had the time to think about it too much, but... he was pretty darn proud to call the reincarnation of Abel his best friend.

Yu tilted his head, curious.

"If your friends are like that, then there's something good about you too."

"Yeah. I'm the guy they pull out to have someone who can actually use the strength-based skills."

So says the skinny tech nerd.

"..."

Yu looked said skinny tech nerd up and down, the bafflement obvious on his face. Just... how weak were his friends that he was the tank?

Pretty gosh darn weak.

"Hey, I throw a good right hook, OK? I got in a lot more practice than I ever thought I'd need."

Yu just... gave him a thumbs up. Better to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I can tell."

No he can't.

Atsuro tries not to look too aggrieved as he sighs to himself yet again. "No one ever believes me. It's like having a program that displays my stats doesn't even mean anything."

...wait, what?

"You can do that?"

"Parallel universe thing." Demons invading the earth thing. Atsuro slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out his shiny video game system. Er. COMP. "I can show you later when there's not so many people around."

He was pretty sure if he accidentally summoned a demon here, he'd cause a stampede.

Color him intrigued; Yu nodded in understanding. He was going to summon Izanagi for someone before, but was kind of grateful that it didn't work the same way in this world. In hind sight, having his Persona suddenly appear in the middle of the City Hall probably would have been bad.

"I'll look forward to it."

"Hey, I think they're about to start something." Atsuro will turn towards the front of the room. "Guess it might be time to get those explanations -- I'll catch up with you later. Narukami, right?"

He will defer to the surname in the absence of familiarity here.

Yu nodded.

"See you later, Kihara."

[Game Opening, Part 1 - What Souls Here May Bring]

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