[open] Ain't it great, how we met each other

[pseudonyms]

Who: Rise Kujikawa and YOU! Yes, even you.
When: 6/1
Where: Lots of locations, CYA, etc etc.
What: Rise's getting back out in the colony and dragging people along for the ride with her daily routine.
Rating/Warning: Probably not yet.


[Even if by Cerealia standards it's her birthday, Rise doesn't think anything of it. Things are different here and she has a long day ahead of her. But at least it's nice to be on some kind of schedule again and get back to the way things were.]

A.) Catch a glimpse of the hollow world;

[The morning starts early for Rise Kujikawa with a bright and early call for a photoshoot. She never realized that a "sunglasses model" could be a real job but here she is bright and early when the sun is just perfect to capture the product without the glare effect. Did you happen to stumble onto the scene of this shoot? You might find Rise perusing a table of glasses that she's meant to put on her face and she'll turn with a small grin on her face.]

Which one do you think I should start with first?

[Alternatively, later in the shoot she's put on a pair that's a liiiiittle too dark and it makes it hard to see. Sorry if she happens to bump into you on her way to put them back.]

Sorry! Geez, these are way too effective…

B.) Turning misery into meaningfulness;

[Later in the day she's in front of a storefront in the shopping district with a plate of tofu samples. This feels a little more like home, weirdly enough, and even if she's dressed down in a work smock she seems oddly relaxed. She won't hesitate to stop anybody who wanders by, maybe even tapping the shoulder of the person if it's someone she knows (hell, maybe even the people she doesn't know.)]

Free sample? It's fresh…they're trying a new recipe in there. [She has opinions on said-tofu, but collecting information and backing said-opinions is never a bad thing.]

C.) Gaze in fascination so hard;

[Regardless, even if she has a busy busy day she's going to take time for herself even if it kills her. That's what this is about, isn't it? Relaxing, getting back to a normal life after the trauma that came from that weird, dark area. After her shift at the tofu shop she'll even text a few friends.]

Weather's great! Wanna come up?

[Friends who text back will get an answer, but for anybody who…happens…to be prone to being on rooftops they'll find that Rise's dragged a couple of chairs up to the roof of her apartment building, an umbrella tilted just enough for the slightest amount of shade and sprawled out in one of the lounge chairs dressed in a bikini with yet another pair of sunglasses on.]

It's perfect, isn't it?

D.) You know the stake in high stardom is near;

[And so the sun sets. The day goes on, and there's one more shift to take care of in her day before she's satisfied. Anyone in the Entertainment District may find that several colonists are heading for one particular karaoke bar. Entering the bar, you'll find that Rise is at the mic and it's here she's in her most natural environment as she continues her performance. When she finishes the song and the applause dies, she peers around before her eyes land on you, a playful smirk on her face as she speaks into the mic.]

I think it's your turn to sing a song for us! What do you say?

[Looks like the crowd agrees.]

[Or maybe you find yourself at the bar later and she finishes another song. No matter who it is, she'll slide into the seat next to you and she doesn't even appear winded as she speaks up.]

Who knew aliens liked music so much?

E.) Looking so different glaring street light;

[Or you can wildcard her! She can be found anywhere in the above locations, wandering the colony, or maybe you're a friend who happens to bump into her. Bring it on.]

Comments

[adornmental]

[Being honest is definitely a trip sometimes, Kashuu could attest to that... He nods in response, though!]

Yeah, that's right. From people who've been here from the very start, I think? Or some of 'em have been, anyway. It might be smart for us to print out a few hard copies just in case, though. [He'll do that once he leaves, actually... Always Be Prepared™.]

But yeah, same here. Our home isn't really normal, but it sure looks like it compared to this place.

[pseudonyms]

And you know a little about our world, too. What's really different about this place is that everyone's powers or experiences or weapons or whatever usually show up and function normally here, too. Did I tell you that our Personas usually aren't supposed to work outside of the TV world? It was really weird seeing it work the first time here.

But anyway. [She pauses to take a drink.] Printing more copies isn't a bad idea.

[adornmental]

Oh - seriously? That is pretty weird... Is "tv world" literal? Maybe it can work anywhere here because of all that weird code stuff.

[He really needs to sit down and try to wrap his head around all of the technobabble eventually, but man, it's a struggle...]

I'll try to get some more copies together, then! [Someone beat him to it as it turns out BUT HEY, he's sure not complaining.]

[pseudonyms]

It's totally literal. [She doesn't seem to have a problem with explaining something like this to Kashuu.] To get to the TV world and rescue people and fight the Shadows we would have to jump through the big TV at Junes together. Teddie had a portal set up for us and everything so we could go back and forth. I've kind of wondered if it's because of the code, too, but I don't really understand all of it.

[Shrug!] I bet a lot of people would really appreciate that, Kashuu-san. I guess I could treat it like a script or any other contract.

[adornmental]

Woah. [Rise's world sounds like a trip and a half, honestly...]

That sounds like something straight out of a story, y'know? Pretty impressive! Just jumping through a weird TV portal into another world... Eh, but I guess it's not as weird as ending up here. You could always see if Mosley will answer that for you too, but take everything that guy says with a grain of salt.

[Waving a hand dismissively! Kashuu does not like Mosley...]

Sounds good to me, though. We're trying to scrape up some sorta staff to keep the sanctuary guarded at all times, so once we do get more copies, hopefully we can store some in there.

[pseudonyms]

Some of us were actually thrown into the TV first...it's a really long story. Yu-senpai would probably know how to explain it a lot better than me since he was there from the very beginning! I keep hearing that Mosley would have answers but I still haven't approached him. I'm not really sure I want to just yet either. He's really that shady?

[But a guarded sanctuary sounds like a good idea.] You think there's enough people around to watch that place all the time?

[adornmental]

That sounds super weird. [But he says it without any judgment, because there are so many things in so many people's lives that are super weird... Cerealia's just highlighted that even more.]

Yeah, he's super shady. Like chaotic neutral alignment kinda shady. Basically if you do talk to him, don't do anything rash. Maybe be around someone else when you make the convo too, so they can listen and weigh in and stuff.

[PARANOID, but he thinks it's probably decent advice. As for the question, he nods!]

Mmhm! There are hundreds of us here, yeah? If small businesses can keep running with like, five employees, we can totally set up guard shifts that'll be easy on everyone.

[pseudonyms]

Wouldn't he know if somebody else was around listening to the conversation though? I thought that was the whole point of the weird implant things. We're sure that's safe for everyone?

[But he has a point.] I think it's more about getting people to volunteer to do it. I can't think of too many people who'd want to stand around for a few hours a day to make sure our sanctuary stays safe.

[adornmental]

Oh, no, he'd totally know. It's more like a safety in numbers thing, yeah? Like if something goes wrong, there's more than just one of you around to try handling the situation.

[As for the volunteer teams, Kashuu sticks his hand up in the air like he's answering a question in class or something.]

I know a handful! And I'll drag some more in.

[pseudonyms]

That's a good point. Even if all of us didn't head into each dungeon we all went into the Midnight Channel together. [Rise what.

But she shakes her head and she gives him a fairly bemused look.] Are they all swords, Kashuu-san? [This is apparently important in her thoughts.]

[adornmental]

Eh? Dungeons? That's kinda medieval storybook-y sounding...

[Except for the Midnight Channel part, he's totally lost there... But he'll shake his head a little in response to the question, though--]

Most of 'em are- [Because his teammates never get a break.] -but some are friends I've made here.

[pseudonyms]

I'm not really sure what else to call it! It was definitely like a dungeon though because it had a lot of floors and it was always crawling with Shadows. Some of them were really creepy, too.

That's good. [There's a little grin.] I just think it's important to blend old friends and new friends together. Is that strange?

[adornmental]

That sounds mega-creepy. What were you even doing there? [SOUNDS SPOOKY. Though he supposes if they're some sort of fighting/investigative squad, they were probably doing their battle thing in there...

But he shakes his head in response to that, pretty much without hesitation.]

Mm, nope! I think that's the best thing, too. Old friends will stick with you but that doesn't mean you can't bring new ones to the mix, yeah?

[pseudonyms]

[There's a vague smile.] Do you really want to know the truth, or the less-spooky version? Not many people know what happened back home.

[She gets it. The Midnight Channel's pretty weird and hard to explain sometimes.] I think that's exactly right. Besides, the longer you get to know new friends they start to become old friends. The friends I have now are friends I only met a year ago. It's a little funny to think about sometimes. [And she perks up a bit after that.] Besides! I want to make the most of my friendships here. I don't see why people wouldn't want that.

[adornmental]

The truth-truth, if that's okay!

[Since he knows that sometimes, there are things from people's home worlds that they just don't want to share.]

That's true, too... [The new friends becoming old friends thing. HE LIKES IT.] Most of my comrades are pretty new, too, since we were all just summoned about a year ago. I get what you're saying! And I totally agree. It's too sad if you let a big opportunity like this pass by.

[pseudonyms]

[Both things sort of tie into each other and it's for that reason she chooses to respond to his last comment first.]

Senpai's been here longer than me and he's definitely taken the chance to make a lot of friends, too. But he's always been that way. Our whole team was put together because of Senpai bringing us all together. [How to explain...]

The whole thing started because of a series of murders that were happening in our town, Inaba. There used to be a rumor back home about this thing called the Midnight Channel. People used to say that if you watched it when it was raining you'd see your soulmate, but that wasn't true. What people were seeing were people who'd been kidnapped and thrown into the TV. Yu-senpai was the first one to figure out we could jump into the TV. He and the others started going in and rescuing people who'd been thrown in there before they could get killed. When people are in the Midnight Channel, what shows up on the TV is what's called their Shadow, parts of themselves that were their true feelings that'd been suppressed. All of us on the Investigation Team except for Yu-senpai had to face our other selves and when we accepted them, they became our Personas. We used them to help us fight and rescue people from their own personal dungeons while solving who was behind all of the murders. [Eh. That's it in a nutshell without going into the whole Izanami thing.] All of the dungeons reflected an environment that our Shadows felt at home in, too. Some of them were really kind of scary, but if we didn't help fight the Shadows more people would have gotten hurt.

[adornmental]

[He's quiet for the duration of her explanation, though it's clear he's intently listening to all of it with the way his expression shifts and changes as she talks. Really... Thinking about other worlds and the bizarre trials that people have to go through in them make him tired, sometimes.]

...All right. Okay, I think I've got it. [IT'S COMPLICATED but he's doing his best. The TV sounds like some sort of portal to another dimension, and even if the TV itself is weird as hell to Kashuu, the whole interdimensional thing isn't new. Since she'd already explained Personas before, that much makes sense, too. The other pieces of the puzzle click into place fairly easily.]

That really sounds like a lot for just one group to handle, though. I mean - I guess that's the way it is any time a group has to step in, but still... [It's a lot! They're all very brave, as far as he's concerned.]

So someone chucked you in there?

[pseudonyms]

The police weren't working fast enough to save everyone who was thrown into the TV, but we later found out why. [Thanks, Adachi.] We couldn't have done it without each other though in the end...after everything, there were eight of us that worked together to stop the murders and change the fate of the world. We wouldn't have done it really without Senpai leading us.

[His question gets a nod in exchange.] But yeah...after the first two murders, two more of my friends were kidnapped and thrown into the TV before me. Yukiko-senpai was rescued and then Kanji, and then those two and Yu-senpai, Yosuke-senpai and Chie-senpai came to save me and fought my Shadow. Teddie joined our team around the same time, too.

[She can't help but roll her eyes in thought.] The man responsible for throwing all of us into the TV, Namatame...we found out later that he was doing it to keep people safe. The original murderer had convinced him that he had to save everyone and Namatame thought putting us into the TV was the way to do it. He didn't know about the Midnight Channel and what it really did to people. It was a mess. That's not even counting everything that happened after that...[She musters up a smile though.] It's all over now and we're stronger because of it, and the world's still safe! That's really what counts.

[adornmental]

That's still a whole lotta stuff to go through... But it sounds like you guys have a pretty solid support network, huh? And if everything turned out all right in the end, that's good.

[Otherwise it's just a bunch of time and lives wasted and THAT'S ALWAYS DEPRESSING...]

Mm... Well! You guys sound strong, so I guess that's not super surprising. [A little, quirking smile follows. He looks like he's about to say something else, BUT THEN - someone's up on the stage at the mic, calling for Rise again.]

Ah— Looks like they want an encore.

[pseudonyms]

In the end...everything worked out. [Even if they split up after the year was over. Even if the Persona franchise continued with three more games. Still, she's not going to lead into that depressing topic and she turns her head in the direction of the patron calling her name. She holds up a hand in a "just a second!" sort of motion before turning to Kashuu again.]

I am still working even if I'm having fun. Stick around for a while and enjoy yourself okay? We've got a fun set of songs coming up. I'll see you later! [And she hops off of her seat and begins fighting her way back up to the stage.]