« 001 ⇢ DEBUGGING001.EXE »

[reparator]

Who: Togami and his intrepid adventuring party ( Kyouko Kirigiri (the lancer), Leon Kuwata (the smart guy), Ruby Rose (the big guy), Yu Narukami (the leader), Rise Kujikawa (the chick) )
When: IC: 9/25, OOC: 9/10
Where: The Pleasure District
What: Searching the seedy underground of the Pleasure District seems to have borne fruit.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for some questionable situations and possible violence. This is a log set up in response to a player plot brought to the mods. Please feel free to bring ideas to the mods at any time!

---

[ The Pleasure District is not so pleasurable right now. The robots and NPCs alike are belligerent, the facilities are still broken and a mess, and it feels like someone is always watching them.

But if they make it far enough...they'll find that they're in a seedier area of the District. Here, there are whispers of CERES refugees, and that they might just be around here somewhere. That said, the NPCs here are meaner, less willing to cooperate and more willing to use force to get what they want.

And who knows out of all of these buildings and brothels and who knows what else where Bellona and the others are?

Good luck! ]

Comments

[succeeder]

[ Togami at least has his Hacking Gun along with him to deal with robots, and he's not afraid to use it, but that's not going to work on hostile NPCs. Luckily, this is one reason why he brought a buffer of other people around. He's not going to try and directly confront any NPCs without a reason, but he can at least feel secure that they're not going to get overwhelmed without any way to fight back.

For now, he's sticking to the more deserted areas of the district, looking for any clues to point in a particular direction. Though he has other people to help with that, too. ]

Has anyone found anything yet? Report anything, even if you can't determine its significance.

[babermetrics]

How am I supposed to know what to report if I can't tell if it's significant . . .

[He grumbles, but he's trying, here. He just has no idea what to look for. His eyes are open and he's doing his best with his mind but he's at a disadvantage compared to a detective like Kirigiri, or Rise, with her Persona.]

[undaunts]

I mean... [She's shrugging, but--] Maybe if the people down here seem to be hiding something especially well... that might be good?

Kinda hard to tell though, they're just grumpy about everything.

[babermetrics]

Yeah, reminds me of some people I know.

[He makes a face at Togami because if they can't bond over that, what can they bond over? Ha ha. But then he rallies and grins back at Ruby:]

You're Ruby, huh? I know everyone else here! Nice to meet you! And you're probably right, too! I'll just . . . I dunno, see who's actin' suspicious?

[undaunts]

Heheh, yep, that's me! Nice to meetcha, Leon!

[She's friendly enough at least, beaming at him and nodding.]

So like...let's look for people who are sneaking around and wearing masks and hoods and carrying questionable weapons and maybe wearing skimpy dresses?

[Ruby, what do you even think of "suspicious"]

[succeeder]

If it's different from what we've already seen, then report it.

[ He would be crossing his arms if he wasn't carrying a weapon. Instead he puts his free hand on his hip, unimpressed. I HEAR YOU SHITTALKING ME TOO! ]

Is that instruction still not clear enough for you?

[babermetrics]

Yeah, yeah, I got it!

[He rolls his eyes, but he's still smiling. Like you don't deserve it.]

You think maybe I oughta . . . go in somewhere? Buy someone and see how that goes?

[succeeder]

...Do you think that's worth wasting the time and money to attempt?

[ He considers it, though. Hmmm. It could theoretically... yield something. And it's true that Leon isn't a completely essential member of their party otherwise. But the chances of it being successful seem low. ]

[covenantal]

[ After he and Rise, plus the other pairs, return, but but before Rise tries using her powers: ]

Was something bothering you earlier, Togami-san?

[ He's still curious about the staring. Now just seems like a better time to ask. ]

[succeeder]

...Bothering me?

[ Since it wasn't actually serious, he has no recollection of it even being a thing. In fact, he's more bothered by the idea that he might have been visibly bothered by something when it wasn't even serious. ]

The only thing that's bothering me is our lack of a lead.

[covenantal]

[ ... well, alright then. If it was a big deal he assumes Togami would remember, so it's probably nothing to worry about.

Instead he bobs his head in a nod. ]

I feel the same way. No one here wants to talk to us, which is making this search a lot harder. As much as I'm concerned about drawing attention, we may need to use Kanzeon.

[ Rise's Persona. She'll be big and obvious, a definite risk, but do they have a choice? ]

[babermetrics]

[Leon's not going to be much good as the muscle. Maybe in a normal situation, he would be; he is pretty athletic and strong in a totally unpowered, untrained, normal human way. That's something.

And he's not going to be any good as the brains. For anyone who's met him for more than five minutes, that fact really speaks for itself.

And he doesn't have any useful magical stuff here, and honestly even his work ethic is, ehhhh . . . well, he's motivated for this, though, for once! He is doing his best.

It's an honor to be invited, hope you don't regret it.

Right now he's not sure what he needs to be doing, though. Peeking into abandoned places isn't turning anything up. He's wandering the streets with the others, carrying a metal baseball bat because that's just what you do when you're a baseball player on a Mission, and though he's looking around at what he can, he's more relying on the others here. The people who have actual skills.

Finally, though, he pauses in front of a brothel that's definitely not abandoned, as they're edging into the seedier parts of the underworld.]

. . . Soooo uh, d'you think maybe I should like . . . go into one of these places, pretend I wanna pick up a girl, see if I can get any info out of her . . . ?

[I mean, that's something he can do. He can't fight aliens or be a detective or use a Persona, but he can probably manage to buy and fool around with a hooker.]

[fittedgloves]

[ Leon please...

It isn't a bad idea though, and it might actually get them somewhere. Although everyone they've come across so far seems to want all of them to leave the District as quickly as possible, there's no harm in at least trying. ]

What sort of questions do you plan on asking?

[babermetrics]

Ahhh . . .

[That's one step ahead of as far as he's gotten. Damn, now he's got to plan ahead! He drifts closer to Kirigiri, keeping his voice low, in case he actually decides to go through with this and doesn't want the whole Pleasure District to know his plan before he enacts it.

Hmmm.]

Maybe I'd, like . . . say that CERES is after me, and be like, "so you ain't seen them around, right?" Y'know, because I need to stay away from them! I'm a man on the run who really needs to get laid!

[covenantal]

[ He's been nearby too, you know. And listening.

And staring.

Neutrally: ]

It's not a bad way to look for information, but what if they don't know anything?

[covenantal]

[ The Leader or not, Yu decides to bring up the back of the party. He brought a katana with him, which he keeps held in one hand, sheathed, as they walk around. It's tempting to summon Isis and just have her on standby in case of ambush of some kind, but he doesn't want to be seen as unnecessarily aggressive by the already skittish locals. No one here is terribly friendly. ]

It would be fastest to check all these places if we split up, but we should at least stay in pairs. [ A frown. ] It's safest. Try not to go anywhere alone where the rest of us can't quickly reach you.

[ The pairs he'll designate are: Leon and Rise, Ruby and Togami, and Kyoko and himself.

He won't investigate anything by himself. He sticks with the others more than not, a hovering, quiet bodyguard. He only heads off of the others also split into pairs. ]

[succeeder]

[ He considers this, and then nods slowly. It's riskier to split up, but they should be able to handle things in pairs. (And Ruby seems like a safe bet for him personally to stick with for now.) ]

As long as everyone stays in close contact. Contact the others if you find something important so we can join you; otherwise, we will regroup shortly after we have exhausted a potential lead.

[ ...His gaze lingers on Yu for a while after it has any reason to, for the sole stupid reason of that katana making Yu's resemblance to a coworker of his suddenly evident. How uncanny. ]

[babermetrics]

[Well this guy notices the look, and has a quick moment of wondering if everyone he's attracted to here is attracted to Narukami (he has no evidence re: Kyouko, but! they're going off together! he paired himself off with Kyouko!!).

But that's way beside the point. Leon nods, drifting over to Rise; he's perfectly happy to do this by her side, too. He lifts a hand to rest lightly on her back.]

So if we don't find anything after a while, we'll try the whole Persona thing?

[pseudonyms]

[Sorry about you, Leon, and the fact that it's potentially possible that Yu has the protag-swag. Either way, she's also not shy about letting his hand rest on her back and grabbing his other hand with her free one. They have to stick together, right? The other pairs make sense to her.]

Definitely. I can contact Senpai really easily if we find something and we'll regroup together if we don't come up with anything else. Kanzeon and I should be able to help as long as we have some kind of idea. Let's get together again in...half an hour?

[undaunts]

[And after a lot of the planning has gone down--]

Heheh, shall we, Togami? Let's go find everything before everyone else does!

[She may or may not mean "find all of the danger before everyone else" because that's how she rolls.]

[succeeder]

It's a good thing you're so eager. [ It means he can tell her to go investigate something and she'll rush off and do all the work for him no questions asked. A valuable trait in a partner of Togami's. ] Let us commence down this alleyway.

[pseudonyms]

[After some time with their pairs split up and regroup, Rise glances around the pleasure district with the slightest bit of distaste. Ugh. This place is pretty gross even on the best of days, but the underground makes her nervous and she subconsciously places herself between Yu and Leon for the most part.]

I can try to get a better read on where we should go next. We're pretty lost right now, huh?

[covenantal]

I think we've run through a lot of our leads, anyway. [ He definitely stays close to her, slightly protective by her side. For no reason other than if she got hurt he'd lose it. ]

Give it a shot, Rise.

[pseudonyms]

[There's a confident grin in Yu's direction because at least she can do this. This is something she can contribute without fail and so she steps away for a moment before there's a soft call of 'Persona!', the bright light flashing before Kanzeon appears behind her. The Persona smiles down gently at the group before stepping forward, red band coming to cover Rise's eyes to help her try to pinpoint their next path. Will she see anything at all? Who knows? But she has to try.]

[reparator]

[ She sure will see things. Plenty and plenty of things, but it mostly depends on what she's looking for.

One thing she'll probably notice, however, is that the player characters are distinctly different from the alien NPCs; they come across as glitchy code to her persona-enhanced vision, whereas the NPCs come across as normal flesh-and-blood aliens.

Otherwise, she'll have to be looking for something in particular; the layout of the Pleasure District's seedier areas is pretty winding and complicated! ]