Wailing of the Damned (Open)

[Pyxis]

'All men are their own island.' That was a strange strange saying. It didn't take much to guess what it meant -- suggesting that people could be entirely independent if need be -- but it still didn't quite translate well to reality. Many island nations just plain didn't have the resources to be completely independent of other nations. Pyxis had even read a piece once about an island colony that tried to do that, and eventually exhausted the island's limited resources and drove themselves to extinction.

...Picking apart human expressions was getting to be a bad habit of hers.

"I suppose you're right," Pyxis finally said. "I've never made a big deal about being what I am before. I'm not sure why I suddenly thought it mattered so much. We're all people, and at least until 'Heaven's Gate' is dispelled we're all in this together." And speaking of 'not sure why', since when had she started using the name her teammate had coined for the anomaly in actual conversation? Sheesh, she wasn't even in constant contact with him and he was still rubbing off on her. "I feel better now than I have since that fight," she said. "So thanks for that too."

She stood up again. There wasn't much she could do at the moment, and despite what she said about feeling better her current state probably wasn't a good one for fighting shadows in, so going right back into the shadow-infested zone was out of the question. But at the same time...she couldn't imagine the swing she'd been sitting on was designed to handle her weight for very long. "I guess we should start thinking about our next move, then."

[Ayakura Alisa]

There were a couple of moments of awkward silence. I guess she was trying to process what I had just said... Then again, how did robots interpret figures of speech and idioms and the like? She probably knew what I meant, but probably overthought it through a bit... That said, I snapped out of my own brief reverie when Pyxis finally began to speak. She mentioned wondering why it mattered so much - honestly, it didn't, but when you were dealing with specific organizations and corporations it probably wasn't worth the risk. I didn't know the organization Pyxis was under specifically, I'd have to do some research on that one, but I did know that much. She stood and seemed to feel better and a bit more confident now that we both had some direction to go after that reeling blow. I'm sure Chidori would have wanted us to stay strong and keep trooping on.

"There are some dangerous Shadows sighted in some of the outskirts of the outer lands, though. I've been to some of them. Riveting stuff. Very dangerous. I wouldn't advise going to some of those places alone. I tried. Not very fun. Though admittedly it would serve well if one wanted to get stronger," I scratched my head. "That's right. I think a top priority is trying to get on top of this Shadow business. For that, we need to make sure we're as strong or stronger than our opponents."

[Pyxis]

In some of the outskirts, huh? It seemed like the farther out one went, the stronger the shadows got. That was true for her own exploits, too. Her endless climb of the tower had made it very clear that the higher up she went, the stronger the shadows she encountered got. Was there a particular reason the areas holding the strongest shadows were the ones farthest away from the safe zone? If the strongest ones were right at the edge, then it would have been very easy to catch freshly awakened Persona users by surprise and eliminate them before they could get stronger. Or maybe the 'military' were among the strongest, and people were still slipping past them undetected.

...No, that couldn't be right. If there was any degree of sentience among shadows, they had to have noticed the hole in the blockade by now.

"I'll look into them, at least," Pyxis said. She referenced a map she'd been uploaded with upon deployment, picking out a few likely locations. The airport and the mine seemed like likely candidates, and possibly the gigantic sinkhole they'd run past on the way in. Anything else, she'd have to find on her own. "I've only been out that far once, and it wasn't to fight shadows, so anything you can tell me would be helpful. If I'm really going to get stronger, I'll need opponents I can properly measure myself against. I'm not getting nearly as much out of exploring that huge office building as I used to."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I nodded. "I guess it would be obvious to say that the mine and that giant sinkhole into some giant chasm would be candidates for you to check out. At times there's a giant castle too, but I would hold off against that place for the meantime. Though at some point we would probably benefit at least from some form of reconnaissance," I heaved out, scratching my head again. "This is all very strange, don't you think? If they wanted to kill us off wouldn't they put their strongest breed out to guard the entrance to the city in case some of us would want to walk out? Something tells me there's more to this than meets the eye, but I wonder if we can find our answers that easily..."

I sighed, currently at a loss for words and thoughts, but mostly words. "Well, in any case, I'm sure something will come up."

[Pyxis]

"Giant castle?" Pyxis repeated. She hadn't seen such a thing coming in, and nothing matching that description came up on the map either. Unless Alisa was grossly exaggerating, nothing within the area of 'Heaven's Gate' should have matched that description. For such a thing to exist, it would have to have appeared after she'd arrived. "I don't remember seeing anything like that when I got here. Or on any map," she said. "Where is it?"

Meanwhile, Alisa also shared Pyxis's questions about how shadows got stronger the farther out one got. She hadn't gotten far with that line of thought, but had reached the conclusion that just killing Persona-users off wasn't their goal. If that was the case...what then? Were they deliberately trying to build up 'food' for the shadows that appeared under the full moon?

And on top of that, there was the suspicious person she'd talked to through a game lobby chatroom the other night, who gave off very suspicious vibes and hints that could at least be interpreted to suggest the possibility of being a shadow. Was that even possible?

"So much un-shadow-like behavior, a giant castle that appeared out of nowhere, and the possibility of shadows posing as humans..." she mused out loud. "What the heck is going on here?"

[Ayakura Alisa]

Pyxis was apparently not aware of the castle? I had visited the castle when I went on the mission with Ran as a partner. It was really like a movie experience, that. "The giant structure is... somewhere around. Sometimes it's grounded, sometimes in the sky, according to reports from fellow users and my own personal experience having actually been there," I started. "However, I only went there because I took up a mission where I accompanied another User in exchange for resources. I wasn't able to find anything pertaining to the actual situation. Though I fear I will be returning there again at some point..."

I had summarized the structure as best as I could. Hopefully Pyxis could draw her own conclusions from that. Meanwhile, she began to process the recent happenings. Un-shadow-like behavior? "Possibility of Shadows posing as humans? Now you have my interest. What's this about Shadows possibly posing as humans? Was that even possible? Maybe we might be dealing with some civilized Shadows here. At the same time, however, I have the feeling that those Shadows which are smart and intelligent enough to pose as humans have their own agendas and some may not even come from here." I scratched my head.

[Pyxis]

So not only was this castle something that had appeared out of nowhere, it was also apparently capable of floating. If that was the case, then the nature of the anomaly had just gotten even stranger. Nothing about it, from Alisa's description, made any logical sense. And yet, she doubted that Alisa would be the type to bullshit her. She would have to investigate it at some point, although from the sounds of it the castle would be outside of her ability level for the time being. Perhaps it was time to call up one of the other teams who had found their way into 'Heaven's Gate' with her.

She made note of the location and description as Alisa tried to reason through the rest of what she had said. In particular, the theory about shadows posing as humans stood out. "I don't have anything more than suspicions at the moment," Pyxis said. "But I encountered someone while playing games over the local network the other night who was familiar with the shadow-infested area and claimed to be stronger than a normal human, but wasn't a User herself. Actually, a lot of what she said suggested that she was in some kind of ongoing conflict with Users." There were plenty of possible explanations for what she had said, but it would be foolish to just discount the most dangerous one without a second thought.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I nodded as Pyxis recounted her experiences with this potential person who could be posing as a Shadow, but there was no conclusive evidence to prove it. Outside of encountering her in person and finding out the hard way, it would be hard to exactly prove this theory based on textual evidence. "I see. Interjections are interjections, after all. You may need to arrange a meeting with her at some point and figure out her true nature. If she knows about the existence of Users, actively denies being one, yet presents herself as being stronger than the typical person, she may be trying to bait you out," I scratched my head. "I haven't met such individuals yet, but I figure that if you find out and confirm that she really IS a Shadow posing as a human, she may not be the only one who is like that."

Logically speaking, there may be more individuals like the person Pyxis encountered over the local 'Net. Of course, there's the possibility that that's the only individual, but we can't rule out any exceptions or possibilities. "This really is strange, huh... Well, only one way to find out the answers to these mysteries, huh? This is my forte, after all..."

[Pyxis]

Pyxis nodded. "She did seem to want to meet me," she said, thinking back to that night. Pyxis had only responded that it would probably happen sooner or later. That was when the possibility that they may not be on the same side when they did meet had come out. She wasn't quite looking forward to the idea, but not because of any doubt that she could handle a shadow like that. Rather, she wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the idea of making enemies of people who seemed easy to get along with. "I can't say I'm looking forward to something like that, but I suppose if I could control the meeting place..." Actually, that brought up another point. "Actually, if there are shadows sentient enough to convincingly pose as humans, we may be able to gain some insight into their intentions."

She closed her eyes, thinking on what else Alisa had said. More than one? If one such person existed at all and they were the only one, they could possibly be the one behind this entire thing. But more likely, there was more than one. The shadow from the fight at the hospital also came to mind. "That second shadow, from the fight," Pyxis said. "The one I failed to defeat...now that I think about it, its actions were very calculated, as though it was carefully considering its movements and experimenting. It didn't seem like it could pose as a human, but that one may bear looking into as well. Besides...I want to see it dead eventually." Her voice turned bitter again as she said the last part, but it faded again just as soon as it came. "That's all I can think of, but from what you said when we first met, it sounds like you have a whole bunch of people feeding you leads. Has anyone said anything?"

[Ayakura Alisa]

Pyxis recounted her experience with that 'second Shadow' from the past fight, the one she had to identify as the one she 'failed to defeat.' Hmm... She mentioned that it was quite self-aware, having calculated movements and being able to identify possible actions in combat. She also stated she wanted to get its revenge on it. I'd be glad to assist her in that regard. Anyway, she was interested to see if I got any news from anyone. I scratched my head for a moment and wondered. "Come to think of it, recently, there was a big clash in the mine, I fought with a large Shadow alongisde a small contingent of powerful Users... But there was a second Shadow that behaved similarly. I doubt it was the same Shadow, but I swore I heard it speak and say words... It ran away, though, once we defeated our initial target. It said something about it being too much effort to get rid of us." I hummed in thought.

"Most of my discussions with other people haven't been so fruitful though. If I manage to get more substantial information with other informants I will forward it to you as soon as I can. I have a feeling I will get into further discussion with those who have explored into deeper stratums of Shadow territory than myself."

[Pyxis]

So Alisa had encountered another, similar shadow, which was capable of human speech. now that Pyxis thought about it, shadows should have been capable of that much, but she'd never actually experienced it herself. Even the person she'd talked to online, assuming she was a shadow, had only been typing words onto a computer. Pyxis just plain didn't know what she was capable of. But it would stand to reason, at least. But that behavior, deciding that getting rid of the gathered Users was too much effort, was definitely unusual for a shadow and in fact flew completely in the face of everything Pyxis thought she knew about the lockdown and the shadows behind it thus far.

Once again, what the heck was going on.

"What if it was acting on its own, and had nothing to do with this," Pyxis suddenly said out loud. What would the implications of that be? That the anomaly was attracting shadows? ...Or that shadows could be blending in with human society anywhere in the world, at any time, until the chance arose to feed off them? Either was an unpleasant thought, but if it was true then they weren't any closer to figuring out the purpose of the 'Heaven's Gate' or the shadows behind it.

Finally, Pyxis let out a very artificial-sounding sigh. "I'm just confusing myself more now. This sort of thing really isn't my strong point," she said. "Still, I may need to meet some of these people myself, if only to get to know more of our allies."

[Ayakura Alisa]

I scratched my head as Pyxis seemed to be 'confused' (I guess robots could be confused; computers worked only as well as the stuff that was input into them, logically speaking...) about making conclusions regarding these more intelligent shadows. "You know, that's a perfectly valid conclusion to come to. Once again, though, we don't really know if that's the case until we come into contact with one of them. That's dangerous business, especially if they harbour malicious intents towards other humans..." I said. "At the same time though, it's possible that if they really did act on their own, there's a slight possibility that these more intelligent Shadows, hypothetically, acted rogue and did not discriminate between humans and Shadows when identifying friend and foe. They could just use both types of entities as they were needed..."

I would need to investigate this further. I may be endangering myself, but it was important information worth getting myself dirty for. Yes, yes. Pyxis had unknowingly set me a good precedent to go manhunting again. Hoooo boy...

[Pyxis]

No, no, that just complicated things even more. The confusing situation that 'Heaven's Gate' had become was bad enough, but this was something that was complicated on a more fundamental level. Fighting and eliminating shadows was something central to her very existence. It was the reason she had been created, and something that would take much more than simple logic or a change of opinion to alter. And yet, Pyxis couldn't deny that if some of these shadows were acting as neutral parties and not actually on the same side as the ones behind the anomaly, then keeping them alive could prove beneficial. So long as they didn't hinder the efforts of humans to dispel the lockdown, that could potentially work in her favor. And, it could allow her to gain more insight into the true nature of shadows. That, too, would be beneficial to her ultimate mission.

But they would never not be her enemy.

What should she do then? Find some work-around that would allow her to leave such shadows alive in the short term, provided they proved themselves to not be immediately harmful? Eliminate them anyway, for the threat they could provide? Or simply distance herself so that the decision didn't fall to her?

...No. Given the circumstances, the last one was definitely not an option.

"I think I've just managed to confuse myself even more," Pyxis finally said. "One thing's for certain. We need more information. And...probably clearer heads, too."

[Ayakura Alisa]

"Well, yes," I said as matter-of-factly as I could when stating the bloody obvious. "We do need more information. Proof. Leads. That kind of deal. I can get to work on that as soon as I can. More explorations are needed. I'll do my best in that department. My strength is on the rise as well, so I can handle more dangerous places as needed." I continued. Pyxis also made the point that we needed 'clearer heads.' I was feeling better already somewhat, but my frustration still remained. "As for clearing my own head out, I have the best idea for that." I continued, cracking my knuckles and bringing out Nanatsu-Yoru, spinning it about in my hand. "A good old-fashioned hunt is what I reckon will do me some good in that department."

[Pyxis]

That was kind of obvious, wasn't it? Alisa had probably already settled on that while Pyxis was still trying to work through her own confusion. But, she was right on how to acquire it. Explore more. Get into the places she hadn't been yet and see what they could dig up. Pyxis still wanted to get higher up the tower, but with how stale it had gotten recently she wasn't sure how much more she could take of that. As for what else Alisa said...Pyxis was inclined to agree. While she was still concerned about Alisa's current state of mind, going back to the very basic level of dealing with shadows may do the both of them some good.

Pyxis nodded. "Right. Just...remember what I said, and don't push yourself too far," she said. With that out of the way, they were probably about done here. Unless Alisa would still need her around for awhile longer, of course. Pyxis turned toward the apartment complex nearby...and suddenly thought of something. "Oh," she said, turning back toward Alisa, then gesturing toward the apartment complex. "Apartment 814. That's where I'm staying, in case you ever need me for anything or just want to do something, sometime. You already know what I am, so there's no reason for me to hide anything there from you."