Akemi Meets Shizuka(Log8)

<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
It's a pretty nice day, so the crowds are thin; just a few diehards waging some sort of BlazBlue war of attrition, and a stream of some sort of tournament in Montreal, with a single-digit local audience.

The change counter is unmanned, which is not actually unusual; nobody seems to be in need, in any case.

A tiny woman sits near the edge of the group by the TVs, apparently translating the occasional bit of plot-critical commentary, but mostly sipping coffee.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi is there, despite herself. "Fun" for its own sake wasn't usually something that appealed to her- it wasted time. Buuuut...

 "Fantastic!" Akemi shouts as she beats the computer, again. She's not really that good, but don't try telling her that. Her virtual battlelust sated, she stares, scowling at the English-speaking television. English. Why is it always English. Despite herself, she drifts over, her limited powrs of comprehension failing to explain what the hell was going on on the televison.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Well, it's also French, if that's any consolation. That seems to be what Shizuka's translating from, actually, by the timing. The rest can probably follow the English, or at least the technical pro-gaming jargon.

Shizuka only pretends, really, but her accomplice appears to be out, so she's stuck making sure controllers don't get pitched through flatscreens.

A new guest looms! That's mean, she probably can't help it. "Tournament," she explains, as if it explains something. On further examination of Akemi's evident annoyance, she offers, "Coffee?"
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi would likely never get over that moment of surprise when someone actually decides to talk to her. She jumps up a little bit. "U-uh. Sure? I like coffee," she says as though trying to convince herself. She rifles through her bag for spare coins.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
It's also mean to gawp at people who jump when spoken to.

Shizuka stands, not quite to Akemi's shoulders, and forestalls the hunt for change with a wave of her hand. "I made enough." She wanders across to the residents' door and does a thing with the mag lock, which admits her. She returns a moment later with another cupful, and the pot. She hands the one over, and takes the other back to set on the table beside her seat. It's the only free chair, so she remains standing.

"I can't follow twitch fighters," English terminology creeping in, and her pronunciation is probably too good for Akemi's liking, "and Katsura's not here to do it for me."
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi doesn't even try to hide her distate for the language- it's heavy, almost Freudian. Her countenance only relaxes when Katsura is mentioned. "Oh! Uh, Ka- er, Tsuruya-san? You and her- well, okay, obviously you know each other, but- uh, I know her too. We're..." she trails off. Friends? Is that the right word, even? "We go to the same school," she finishes hesitantly.

 Suddenly, Akemi's face drops in shock. If she- and Katsura, then...

 Without even noticing, she mutters "Persona?", peering downawards, brows creased in concentration and consternation.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Shizuka smiles. Too widely, just a touch. Maybe it was a trick of the light.

"Oh, I forgot to ask if you take sugar," just unforgivable, "there's some in the kitchen, though."

Shizuka wanders back to the door to the residents' section, hinting broadly.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Little did Shizuka know that Akemi is roughly immune to taking hints. It's a long, long while before she catches it, springing up from her seat and dashing to follow her host, a bit nervously.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Well surely you've heard the rumors.

There are forty-eleven sets of them, mostly conflicting, just like there are about everything in Sumaru. Shizuka promulgates a third of them herself. Either way, it's always good to be wary.

She precedes Akemi into the private side of the arcade, which consists of a small dining area and a worringly neat kitchen; she brought the pot with her, although there's a 40-cup monster on the end of the counter. It doesn't look or taste like this came from that.

She sets the /decent/ coffee at the table, and does in fact wander over to fetch sugar, and a carton of half-and-half from the fridge. She puts them with the coffee.

"Persona," she agrees, and takes a seat. Tall people don't loom quite so much when they're sitting. "So you've been /talking/ to Katsura, then?"

<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Crap. "I've been muttering again, haven't I? Uh," okay, think, what's least likely to result in death, "yes, uh, yeah. For a while, I guess. I uh. She's, helped, tremendously. You, uh..." she trails off, taking out her notepad by impulse.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
"Taniguchi Shizuka." She extends a hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she adds, rather as though she's used to reassuring people of this. Whatever you might have seen in her smile before, it's just a perfectly nice smile now, though the rest of her expression says that she's, ah, rather used to having to reassure people that she isn't going to hurt them.

This isn't the time for a 'probably' joke, she doesn't think. "Katsura's with me. What have you been talking about?"
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
"Uh, magic. Science. The application of the latter to the former, mostly. Techniques for acquiring Personae. Video games, although that's a pretty distant second to all the, uh, magic stuff," Akemi stutters out, leafing through her notes. "I, uh,sound kind of crazy, right? I hope you don't think I'm crazy. That'd be, uh. Bad."
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
"Oh. Must've been an imposter." She says it with a totally straight face, too. "No. No, you're fine. Most of that is real."

Shizuka sips her coffee. "Crazy is fine too, to be honest." She peers at the note pages as they flip past, but probably doesn't glean much from them other than how legible Akemi's handwriting is.

"If she didn't tell you, yes, we have that power." One of the reasons that they took this discussion to the other room.

"...I really am not going to hurt you," she adds, eventually.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
"R-right. I, uh-" trust is the wrong word, "am confident that you are telling the truth, uh, then. Uh, how'd you get that power? Despite my most earnest efforts to rectify it, I'm still, uh. Utterly mundane, I fear to say," Akemi says, putting pencil to paper. Her notes are in Hungarian' seceratry's shorthand, making them illegable to the vast majority of the population of Japan. "I'm still searching for a reliable method."
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Shizuka doesn't have an excuse, her notes are just illegible to the vast majority of the population of Japan. Ask Katsura some time.

It's a bit of a hard question, though, although Shizuka might have tread a lot of the same ground herself, on her way up. "When I was in school we played the Persona game. They still do, actually."

Sip of coffee. "And then, I had a dream." Sip of coffee. "And then, five years later," the lights seem to flicker and dim, and for a blink or two, there seems to be another Shizuka, peering over the shoulder of the one smiling up at Akemi. Her smile fades as the lights return, though.

"You can read about what happened in the papers, probably." She may have, even, if she's local; slasher attack, two dead, survivor incoherent, perp never found. Police baffled.

She'll have to leave the rest of the thought unsaid; it seems it's a bit unpleasant for her.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi blinks and rubs at her eyes. Nothing. "Jeeze, maybe I really am going crazy," she mutters, quietly. "I, uh. Maybe'll check that out? I wouldn't have, exactly, have heard of it. I'm pretty disjoint from local news," she says, more loudly. "Uh, but. It took five years? That would, maybe, explain how I still don't have one. I mean, Katsura mentioned it to me, and, uh, and I tried it out..." she says trailing off. Her eyes are unfocused and distant, not seeing the page on which she's writing. "Succinctly- what made it happen? What, uh, what do I have to do, then?"
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Well, if someone had been explaining to Shizuka how real Persona was, and she sat down with someone who knew, she'd be right there in Akemi's chair, asking the same questions, wouldn't she? That was why she played the game, wasn't it?

She still doesn't want to phrase an answer. Instead, she tugs her collar aside a bit, until the beginnings of a scar show. It starts at her collarbone and heads down across her chest. "It protects your life. You need to risk it."
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Son of a bitch. "Son of a bitch," Akemi says. The /one thing/ she would never, ever be willing to do. Not- not like that, at least. "Obviously. That. Uh. Well, fuck it. I'm- it's a good backup plan, obviously, and, uh, I'm glad to have it, at least, and I don't think I'm going to walk through the streets in fear again, but I'm- I'm not going to do that. No, no- there has to be another way, doesn't there?" Akemi says. She rises from nervous to frantic.

 "The scientists behind The Bomb thought it might have ignited the atmosphere, destroying all the world in a massive nuclear conflagoration. And yet they did it anyway. Certainly they were scared. The earliest pharmacists tested their own creations on themselves first, and payed the price. And yet they did it anway. Surely, they knew the risks. So..." and then there were tears and the nashing of teeth "so why the fuck can't I do the same? Aren't I- can't I be half of Oppenhiemer, or Jenner, or- fuck it. I- I-" she sniffiled, wiping her face on her sleeve. "I'm sorry, we- we just met, and. This is really, uh, this isn't how things should be happening, I should be calmer, and more, uh, more- more lucid, less panicy. But- but this is my dream. My future, my everything. My key to saving the world, my pennicilin, my double helix, my immortality. And I can't-" she strikes the table with a feeble fist, making a pathetic bumping sound, "I can't take the one step I need to take before everything falls into place."
[OOC] Shizuka Taniguchi says, "are you down with a katsura showing up"
[OOC] Akemi Ohashi says, "I'm down, yo."
[OOC] Akemi Ohashi says, "Which katsura."
[OOC] Shizuka Taniguchi says, "well i only have the one right now"
From afar (to Akemi Ohashi and Shizuka Taniguchi), Katsura Tsuruya (Katsura) +_+
Katsura Tsuruya has arrived.
[OOC] Katsura Tsuruya e.e
[OOC] Akemi Ohashi says, "Oh that Katsura."
[OOC] Katsura Tsuruya is always there. watching, waiting, judging. +_+
[OOC] Katsura Tsuruya says, "don't mind me... yeeeet. +_+"
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Shizuka makes... /part/ of her living handling crises like this. She catches Akemi's fist on the upswing, and holds it down, gently. "You slow down for a moment," she admonishes, but only once the tall girl has finished dumping core.

"That was how I gained my Persona. And that was not a step I /chose/ to take." She's trying to be comforting here but the idea that she went willingly to be murdered alongside her friends is plainly distressing.

"Now," she says, after she herself has calmed, "There are, ah, artificial methods. Those have risks. And there are the people who know about this sort of thing. They are risks." She doesn't let go of Akemi's hand; it'll give her something immediate to worry about, instead of her helmet fire, if nothing else.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
New rule one of talking Akemi Ohashi out of being an idiot- stop giving her new information while you do it. "Artificial- I mean- okay, uh. Risks, yeah, okay. Still not good- but what is it about? I, uh- what are the risks? How bad are they- obviously either equal to or better than risking ones life but there's a line I'd draw that's a bit higher than death- I think. And- who are this people, and- I'm sorry, Taniguchi-san. I, uh. I'm just fairly confused, right now. Very confused. Extremely confused, really. And frustrated, especially. And, lots of other things, probably. I-if you, uh- I mean, I don't assume that whatever happened to you was volentary, just that for me, I guess, it'd probably have to be. I mean, there's like a four in a thousand chance that something like that happens to me and the rest of the time I'm dying because of cancer, or, something else, but honestly probably cancer. So if I want this power I'm going to have to do something about it. And- I mean- engineering my own possible death isn't something I'm comfortable with, but neither am I comfortable with rolling over and ignoring the very real and very potent power that's /this/ close to me."
<Pose Tracker> Katsura Tsuruya [U] has posed.
Katsura Tsuruya has had what might best be described as a slightly long day, though not for a reason anyone would call particularly good; she had class for a little while and has since moved on to play a fair bit of BlazBlue against a crowd that can't be convinced of the value or fun in money matches. (This happens with the weekday crowd. Weekends are easier -- more international fans, and more internationals period.)

Accordingly, she heads into the kitchen, finally, for a snack... and spots Shizuka holding Akemi's hand. She stops dead for a few moments; her lips purse a little as she tries to sort through the whole mess of first reactions she's thinking about happening.

She settles for blinking a few times and a slightly mute, "Hey," with a nod. Having come in on the far tail end of Akemi's little ramble, she says, after a second, "Simplify your fractions, it's one in two-fifty," before blinking again and actually walking toward the fridge.

<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Oh! Hi, Katsura.

She doesn't actually say. This is a situation for apologizing about later, probably. ...actually, let's be real, this is a situation for asking Katsura about what she's been telling Akemi, later. Shizuka takes some things for granted that she probably shouldn't.

Akemi hasn't really calmed down much, but Shizuka releases her anyways, under the pressure of Katsura's non-reaction. Where does she approach this? "Will you tell me," seems no worse than any other angle, "why you need to awaken your Persona?"

Her probability estimate is likely to be hilariously generous, it sounds like, but she's going to need to be a whole lot calmer before Shizuka can explain why.
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
"I don't want to die. I don't want /anybody/ to die, unless maybe they want to. I have a sickly brother and aging parents and- and- and really, that's it. I got into neuroscience because I thought that maybe brain uploading would work, and that I could work on the problem from that angle. But then I learn, I learn that there's magic- as a scientist, that opens up worlds of new things. I don't think Personae are necisarily capable of turning us all into immortal transhumans- not that easily, at least. But there's /so much/ potential, and so much I don't know! If Personae can heal, can we find out how, and use that to revolutionize healthcare? I know for a fact that some of them can create mass-energy out of nothing- or at least that the input is less than the output. We could harness that and use it to make infinite free energy, which wouldn't really make us immortal, directly, but it would solve a lot of the auxilary problems and improve life expectancies worldwide. And, if these things are supposed to be, like, our psyches, then... what if they could persist after the death of our corporal form? What if we could use that? I- I have to know Taniguchi-san, and the first step is definately me getting my own. My experiments with others have not gone well- I know myself, I know where my limits are, and hopefully I'll know my own Persona too. And if anything I do with my research can get us one step closer to stopping death, then I should be willing to take the highest risk- but I'm afraid. I'm too damned afraid, and that's the problem," Akemi explains tremblingly. She looks at Katsura, somewhat embarrased, but doesn't say anything, her eyes soon reverting to looking down at her lap.
<Pose Tracker> Katsura Tsuruya [U] has posed.
Poking around in the fridge for a while, Katsura half-listens to Akemi's long response to a short question. She ends up settling on, for the /snack/ component of her life, a whole lot of nothing; the poking around in the fridge, at this point, is really more 'an opportunity to be distracted for a few seconds' than anything resembling its original intent.

When there's a break in Akemi's speaking and Katsura feels the dim sensation of eyes on her, she turns to face Akemi, taking a deep breath. ... well, she thinks -- this doesn't really change much, does it?

"I... really think," she says, voice much softer than usual, "that you need to just let it rock. If you keep chasing power, you're gonna' end up nowhere. This is the sorta stuff that gets you a lot of dirty looks, a lot of problems, and not a lot of... go." That's all she has to say on the matter, it seems. Providing advice is a little out of her depth... even if she /has/ been here before, more or less.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
You should be afraid. This is a scary world you've just walked into. Shizuka gets to sit and squirm a bit, kinda for show, while Katsura provides essentially the same answer she would.

"...she has it," she agrees, after a suitable pause. "Pretty much all of it. You can't bring it closer by trying. Not even by trying to get yourself killed, so please stop worrying about that."

Her coffee has long gone cold, so she finishes it, and stands, to go start a new pot.

"But, she /does/ have all of it. Who else have you spoken to?" She preempts an answer. "This is a great power, and a lot of people are very interested in it, and a lot of them are far worse than I am. And a lot of things that aren't people at all are interested, too."

She justifies her next statement with a long, studying gaze. "You could have the potential. 'Could' is enough for most of us."
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi looks slowly from Shizuka, to Katsura, and back again. "I- I'm afraid. Petrified. But I'm not going to give up! I'm not going to roll over and give up. I'm awake during the Dark Hour, I've seen monsters, I've been quite nearly killed at least three times, and I'm not going to let it be in vain! E-even if there are some less-than-savory individuals who want this- th-that doesn't make them anything like me, and if they want to take my power from me they're going to have to go through me for it! N-no mater what you say, or, or what's out there, I can't give up! I want to change the world, and like hell am I going to be cowed!" Akemi says. Her eyes are dried, for the moment. The fiery passion of science has washed over the cold dread of death.

"I'm sure there's horrific things out there- I believe you, I don't have any reason not to believe you, b-but they don't matter! There's horrific things in regular human life- at any moment, one of my cells could transform, become cancerous. Every time I ingest something, food, water, I'm trusting that it's not laced with disease or chemicals antagonistic to human life. I walk down the street fully aware that a car could careen into me. And there are worse things- solar flares destroying our infrastructure, a gamma ray burst that could at any time kill half the planet- and so, what's another group of horrors?

 Both of you, and Hideyori, even- everyone I've talked to about this thinks the world of the supernatural is too dangerous for me. But I'd rather face these dangers with eyes wide open than those lidded in fear. Th-that's my resolution. I'm getting this- for me, and for everyone who I could help with it, and I'm not letting anything get in my way."
<Pose Tracker> Katsura Tsuruya [U] has posed.
The scientific approach is something Katsura never really gets, even though she has a clear knack for science; she's an /engineer/, not a scientist, and accordingly the words Akemi says ring a little hollow for her, personally. She doesn't know how to convince Akemi otherwise, either.

"... look," she says, a little desperately. "Just... don't lose sight of why you got started, okay?" She shrugs helplessly, shaking her head and looking back to Shizuka with a little bit of worry in her eyes. "That's... all I can really tell you, at this point. I know your mind's made up."
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Perhaps the issue runs deeper than Shizuka thought. The framing, at least.

It won't really change her approach, though. "That's good, though," she hates to gainsay Katsura here, but it's for a... cause, yes. "Hold on to that. That's what you need."

Lo, there is coffee. The French press pot is basically the best thing. Shizuka extracts a cup for Katsura from the depths of the cupboard, and delivers it to her on her way to the table. "I don't mean that it's too dangerous for you, like that; I do mean, you're defenseless right now, by yourself, but I'd hardly be better."

She reaches across the table to pat Akemi's hand again. "If it's this way, then you'll have your chance soon enough." She... no. No need for that.

"I think we could probably improve that chance, too."
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Akemi sure did hear the Katsura's words in the literal sense, but she didn't quite cling to them like Shizuka's. "Improve? H-how? Is it... it's going to be unpleasant, isn't it?" She's shaking again- the brief flares of passion come mercurially, and when they withdraw she is still so frightend.
<Pose Tracker> Katsura Tsuruya [U] has posed.
Though she's not /too/ much of a coffee drinker, Katsura accepts the coffee with a nod and takes a long drink. She doesn't comment too much on what Shizuka's saying -- mostly because she isn't entirely sure she's on the same page as the older woman at this exact moment; she just takes a deep breath and then another drink, looking at her expectantly. Her eyebrow does raise a little, however.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Katsura hasn't actually read this particular chapter, is all. Shizuka never opened it with her, and she hasn't had to since then.

"Whatever happens to you might be. I hope you don't think we are." She manages to sound hurt. "I just meant, you should have some backup."

'Older woman' is harsh, you know. "I didn't." She gives the youngest woman a glance, perhaps to emphasize the past tense there.

"...you should, anyways."
<Pose Tracker> Akemi Ohashi [U] has posed.
Wheels spin in Akemi's head. "I-I'm afraid. I'm so, so goddamned afraid. I don't want to die- but I think, I think I have to do this. Especially if I'm really invested in not dying. I, uh. I need some time to think about this. But, I'll remember you- both of you, clearly- and I'll give you a call once I have some inkling of what I'm going to do next. Is, uh. Is that all agreeable, to you?"

<Pose Tracker> Katsura Tsuruya [U] has posed.
Nodding to Shizuka, Katsura finishes draining her coffee and says to Akemi, "Sure thing. Take as much time to figure it out as you want. We got your back." She scoots closer to Shizuka, saying, "I'm pretty sure you've got my number... and I've got a feeling you've got hers too now. Don't worry about it. In the meanwhile, just... it's like I keep saying -- watch your back, y'know?"
<Pose Tracker> Shizuka Taniguchi [NWO] has posed.
Shizuka has cards; dozens of them, honestly, but she borrows a corner of Akemi's notebook to scrawl her number down.

"None of us want to die. That's what our power is." She sips her coffee. "So, yes. You call if you need anything. Or just come here. This house is safe."

A bold assertion, sure, but consider the record. "And you do what you have to do, I guess."