melodiesofeternity | Event || Worldwide Tourists

Event || Worldwide Tourists

Who: All New Arrivals and Curti Center Staff
When: April 15th-30th
Where: All over Vaikuntha, starting outside of the airship hanger
What: Ganeshan, the resident Job Expert, will be taking the new arrivals around the the various Guilds so they can collect their chosen Job Asterisks as noted in their applications.
Warnings/Notes: Guild prompts can be found here

Enter the Master

[Each new arrival's iMog buzzes with a message instructing them to gather for a worldwide adventure to obtain the power of Vaikuntha. If they follow the invitation's instructions, they will arrive at outside of the airship hanger on the morning of the 15th, with their meager belongings packed.

An Enterprise-Class airship, the Ragnarok, hovers outside of the Curti Center. There is a flash of light on the top of the ship.]

"WELCOME!"

[A figure, minuscule at this distance, launches itself off of the ship and hurtles toward the ground. As he draws closer to the ground, he starts to flip, landing with a flourish. An armored figure, sans helm, turns his toothy Zora grin to the crowd. With a shimmer, his armor transforms into a white mage's robe, and he sends a rush of wind through the crowd for dramatic effect.]

"I AM GANESHAN, THE JOB MASTER! GYA HA HA HA! TODAY, YOUR LIVES WILL CHANGE FOREVER."

[Ganeshan shimmers again, ruthlessly abusing the Chemist's Modifier skill to once again shift Job Classes so he can lower the airship's loading dock with a wave of his hand.]

"I BELIEVE THAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS THE ABILITY TO MASTER THE JOB CLASSES. SOME OF YOU MAY MASTER MANY, OTHERS WILL PURSUE THE PERFECT MASTERY OF JUST ONE. BUT EITHER WAY, YOU'LL BE INCREDIBLE!"

[Ganeshan gives everyone a big thumbs-up. The out-worlders who are not scared off by this booming speech can feel free to enter the airship and prepare for their ride around the world. Hopefully some of the Curti Center's newest hires can serve as ~~non-crazy~~ less exuberant tour guides for the new arrivals.]

Around the World

[The Ragnarok will be stopping at every major city in Vaikuntha, with the exception of those cut off by the Imperial border closing. Characters can create top levels to respond to the Guild prompts and explore the cities themselves as the ship makes its stops. Each Guild provides information sessions, free food and trinkets for potential applicants, and once you're ready to receive your Asterisk, all you have to do is take some introductory lessons and fill out forms. Characters can receive up to two asterisks. Time to get to know your new world!

Questions for Ganeshan can be directed to the Ganeshan top level post.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She finished fairly well. Two of the three stuck in the target. The third was a little too flat and fumbled limply to the ground.]

Still room for improvement. [Her expertise was more with her fists and a revolver. She could get the aim down but the technique was still a little beyond her. With a dissatisfied huff, she caught a glimpse of the two figures looking at her in the corner of her eye.]

Oh! Um... hello. [She was a little unnerved, but he didn't seem like he was doing anything threatening.] Looks like we've got a long road ahead of us. Is knife-throwing starting to come more naturally?

[He blinked at her.] Huh? Oh. A little bit, yeah... think I'll stick with tanking a little bit and come back for this later.

I'll practice in my own time in the meantime, though. Gotta stay versa... uhh... multi... lingual. Yeah!

"Versatile." [She couldn't help herself. Her soul would not allow to see such a savage beating of the language. Still, she wasn't about to make a big deal out of it.]

[There was a much more important topic to discuss, after all.] Tanking? Is that a term to describe a role? Clearly you have no aspirations of being a large mechanized vehicle.

[Why do you use gaming terms around the sheltered honor student, Kanji? ;w;]

Look, if I can turn into a giant tank and crush bad guys, I seriously would! But that's a word some people use for berserkers and paladins and stuff... people who take hits and protect others.

I'm used to that kinda thing back home, so why change things, right?

[Oh! Yeah, that makes much more sense. Though now she feels a bit embarrassed at suggesting he wanted to be a war machine. But at least he didn't seem to mind the idea?]

Oh, yes. I see. That's quite commendable.

Ordinarily I would not consider having one person take the focus of enemy attacks, but there may be some tactical value. But don't you think that's a bit dangerous? Surely you would prefer to not take any damage at all.

The method the pamphlet suggested sounded needlessly dangerous to me.

I didn't get as far as I did lettin' people push me or people I like around. I learned, I grew, I still got growing to do. I can take a few hits, so I'd rather be up there makin' life hard for all those bastards out there than have 'em jump and knock the shit outta somebody else.

Not about to go and die over it, but in a pinch I can buy people some time before I knock their teeth out and cover the exit.

Worked on Shadows, so I think it'll work here.

[Huh! While she still wasn't sure about the whole 'taking a few hits' thing, the way this guy carries himself does make her feel confident. Certainly, if she was going to take on a palace, she wouldn't mind counting on him to get into a shadow's face.]

[...wait...]

Shadows?

[There's... no way. Could it?]

Oh. ...Uhhh... I dunno how to describe 'em without confusing people again. But they come from negative emotions and start off blobby, but then they turn into different things like animals, or- or robots. Masks... they all got masks on 'em, with numbers.

Anyway, I guess they're the 'monsters' for my world.

I... see... [Ho. Ly. Crap. What he was describing definitely did sound like the shadows from the Metaverse. But... how could that be? As far as Makoto knew, there were no other Phantom Thieves that she was aware of.]

[Frankly she still couldn't make heads or tails of it. But at the very least he seems pretty comfortable with talking about them? How deep does this rabbit hole go?]

Cognitive monsters? Masks? That's a very unusual type of monster. Do you fight these animals and robots outside of cities, like here, or do you have to go to a cognitive world?

Cogni-... I mean, there's the TV world, and then the shadows leak out when the fog from inside it began to leak out. Er, the weaker ones, anyway.

The stronger ones built worlds for themselves, turn into rogue copies of the people that made 'em. So I had a, like, Shadow Kanji and everything.

[Those... sound an awful lot like palaces. The more she hears, the more confident she is that her hunch is on the right track.]

And, um, what do you do when you find out about these worlds?

Like the one with the Shadow Kanji, I mean.

[While she's putting on a calm front, inside her heart is leaping in her chest. Just a little bit more...]

[He ran his fingers through his hair.]

Uhhm... we got the person to try to chill out and accept their shadow after we kicked the shit out of it for goin' crazy?

Accept their shadow...? [She thinks of that a moment. Where did that sound famili--oh! That's what happened in the temple!]

What happens after that?

[Did they steal her treasure? Did the "world" disappear? The similarities are too much for her to bear. She has to keep herself from jumping over at Kanji and shaking him for an answer. But he's still conversing, so for now there's no need for anything drastic.]

Then the shadow becomes our personas. I dunno the science or whatever behind it, but that's what happened with me.

So yeah. Lotta weird shit. ...Wait, you're not a cop, right? I was told not to tell the cops about that stuff!

[Something inside Makoto's mind broke.]

[There were other Persona users here? REALLY? Could it be that there were other people that could have been responsible for the mental breakdowns? No... that wouldn't makes sense, right? Crap. CRAP. Just when she thought she understood what was going on. Why did this have to happen?]

[The mental bluster took a few seconds and frankly made Makoto's head hurt. But... no, she has to keep herself together. After all, this guy may provide some very important information. Just keep him talking Makoto. Just... keep him talking.]

Uh... no. Sorry.

My sister works for the prosecutor's office... I guess you pick up a few things like how she questions witnesses.

Let's... start over. My name is Makoto Niijima. I am from Shibuya. And you are--?

[With any luck, this guy would take the bait and tell her where she's from.]

Oh... that makes sense.

City chick, huh? I'm Kanji Tatsumi, from Inaba. I guess you'd call me a country boy or somethin'. I dunno. Ain't been outside of my hometown much.

[With Kanji, there is no trap-setting or baiting. There's just asking and watching him run his mouth a bit.]

[What the heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeck.]

[Right right, play it cool.]

Hah, yes. It takes some getting used to but I couldn't see myself living anywhere else. Well, before now.

Inaba... that was the place with the murder investigation, yes? The one with Ace Detective Naoto Shirogane?

Did you... get to meet him?

[He wanted to keep it cool with the nod. But his upper arms tightened up briefly with the name, and his eyes had turned to focus on something else.]

W-well, sure... Naoto's one'a my best friends! Got assigned the same house here, too.

[She could fancy-foot around it, but there was only one thing on her mind:]

Tatsumi-san, does Shirogane-san have a Persona too?

[He paused. Uh oh.]

...Why?

[Welp, that got him alerted. Makoto worried that asking him directly was a gamble.]

You did not mention it earlier, but the Inaba murders happened five years in my past. My father and I would watch the coverage of it and we were never satisfied of its outcome. I met Shirogane-san, and he was willing to disclose only some of the details behind the arrest.

[She closes her eyes as she considered the next move. Perhaps now it was time to give a little...] ...you also discussed internal worlds. This is relevant to me, because during my time there is a group called the Phantom Thieves that somehow enter find a way to steal a person's heart. While I don't mean to alarm you, I was wondering if the way you change a person's shadow may be similar to the Phantom Thieves.

Edited 2018-05-03 05:30 (UTC)

That's the thing, 'cause Naoto was right: How do you even get into what happened without getting thrown into an institution? It sounds wild!

But I respect her decision. I mean, if she doesn't wanna get into it, then I shouldn't either. If it's any help, we didn't steal anything. People in the TV world got thrown in, forced to face a whole living monster made up of all the shit they feared and rejected. If ya rejected it fully, they went crazy and tried to kill ya.

That's... what happened to me. I dunno how they got the jump on me, but they did, and into a TV I went. The whole experience was nothin' I wanna go through again. I accepted those parts of me, got my Persona and helped others.

As for Naoto, I think it's best if ya just asked her. ...Him.

[He turned bright red, startled.]

I meant him! Crap, I screwed up! Don't- y-you mind forgetting I said that!?

[That wasn't an answer, but it wasn't denying it either. Well, that's fair. For everything he was able to say she had an interesting lead that she would never had known otherwise. Still, it wasn't like there was more stuff for her to try to understand. Like this whole entering the TV thing and-]

[Wait what.]

Edited 2018-05-05 17:05 (UTC)

[Did he just--]

Shirogane-san is a--!!

[Fortunately her brain caught up with her mouth before she said that last word. Of course, it took a very fast pair of hands to cover her lips to keep that from getting out.]

Shutupshutupshutup!

[He advanced on her to stop her from finishing that, but she did it all on her own, leaving him to uselessly make 'easy, easy' motions with both palms.]

L-like I said, I didn't say shit!

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