Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 26, 2014 22:57:06 GMT -5
Huh. So the bartender knew that Sakuya was a killer, at least. And wasn't bothered by it. Or at least, not enough to call the cops. Interesting. And not entirely comforting, but at least one less thing she would have to hide while in here. "Well...I'm a decent hand with a blade myself, so I was prepared for the possibility of ending up on the pointed end, at least. But it never came, so here we are," Jaelyn said. She glanced towards the bartender, catching a glint in her eye.
Just how much did she know?
Jaelyn finished her drink then called for her third. Once she had it, she turned back towards Sakuya. "I do have to ask, just what have you been up to when I'm not around?" she asked. "Between Luka and that old guy, you seem to be getting into a lot of trouble."
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 27, 2014 22:22:29 GMT -5
Puck laughed and stayed silent. Jaelyn turned to ask Sakuya about what she had been up to. "Any trouble I've run into all took place outside of the city, of course. I do not stir up any fuss - though I've been talking to people. Lots of people like you, it seemed. And you know what I mean when I say that," Sakuya yawned. "Come to think of it, I did run into more trouble the other day. There was a very rude man who was bullying a girl around your age, probably a little older. Then he attacked me, too. That same man fancies himself a money lender in this area. But I think he's up to no good." soon, Sakuya leaned closer to Jaelyn's ear.
"He's a dirty Shadow. He's more evil than I could possibly ever be." she whispered into it.
Keeping a normal distance between the two of them again, Sakuya sighed. "It's hard, when you're like me, you know? People misunderstand your motives and intentions, because you're not one of 'them.' I'd call it discrimination, but I can hardly blame them. After all, you probably had your apprehensions, too. Hum... I would hate to take sides in this conflict."
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 27, 2014 23:20:07 GMT -5
'Like her.' Well, Sakuya claimed Jaelyn knew what she meant, but really, there were a lot of possibilities. Persona users was the most likely one, though. Really, if there were other people in the city that shared Jaelyn's increasingly bizarre and unusual circumstances, Personas aside, she would be utterly amazed. Even with people like Luka, who had also lost her family and been on her own for awhile, the similarities always ended the moment she brought 'my mom was a serial killer' into it.
So yeah, Persona users.
And then, apparently, there was another shadow in human form wandering around, who had been bullying another girl. Well that was...kind of fucked up. And apparently he was a money lender of some sort. Hopefully, she would never have to cross paths with a person like that. She was still not exactly wealthy, but setting shadows on fire and selling off random crap she found in the shadowlands was proving to be a lot more profitable than she had originally expected. Showing up to murder him was still an option, at least.
She gave Sakuya a small smile as she mentioned her plight. "I'll be honest, if I'd known what you were from the start, I never would have trusted you. You're the only one I've met who hasn't tried to attack me on sight, so I'd have assumed that even if you didn't, you were planning to in the future. ...Hell, I almost did anyway."
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 28, 2014 1:18:00 GMT -5
Sakuya sighed and shrugged. "I don't think I could blame you for that at all. It's a normal reaction to an abnormal occurrence; at least, I believe the existence of beings like myself would be considered abnormal to most in the know," she said, sipping and requesting Puck for another drink. "So again, it sounds natural to react afraid or violently, believing that someone such as myself would greet you with some form of aggression. Though, I suppose, there may be people like me who behave in such a way, but I haven't encountered them yet."
"So I'm glad things have turned out this way," she finished. "I wouldn't have it any other way..."
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 28, 2014 1:45:32 GMT -5
"Well, I'm glad you understand," Jaelyn said, leaning against the bar to compensate for the fact that she was starting to feel a bit wobbly. She took another sip, nodding. "It's more than that, though. You've got this lockdown, with all these people trapped inside here. We've been here for months now, with no sign of anything changing. That's going to put people on edge, and then the ones who have a few ideas of what's going on run into someone like you. I know you're not involved, but someone else might think you are. 'Sides, even if someone like you's not aggressive, they could still be planning something malicious. Sounds like that's what that guy you mentioned is like."
She leaned in again, bracing herself against the bar to avoid falling onto Sakuya. Not that she'd have minded, but...well, they were still in public. "Are there any others like you or that guy around?" she asked in a whisper. "Shadows that can look...human, I mean? It seems hard to believe that you'd be the only ones." The tiger-like shadow from the fight earlier came to mind. It was...sentient, at least. Stupid, but sentient.
She leaned back just a little bit and continued in her normal voice. "That said, I'm happy with how things have gone too. If everything else that has happened was the price for meeting you, then I'd pay it all over again given the choice."
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 28, 2014 8:59:41 GMT -5
"I'm aware," Sakuya said simmply in response to Jaelyn. "I've already explained to those who have questioned me politely on the matter that I was inside the city when the lock down occurred, so I would have nothing to do with it. In the first place, I came from another country - Japan, so such an accusation is baseless," she sighed. "Anyway, I'd assume I would not be the only one of my kind. There may be others. Mosaic City is a strange place, with many people, from all walks of life. Let's assume the worst, haha..."
Sipping her drink, she blushed when Jaelyn mentioned she was happy with the general turn of events. "I'm also happy, too, to have met you. Spending time with you has helped me to be more in control of myself and my actions. I may be able to do something proper with these tainted hands of mine yet," she said. "Though... I feel you may have to help me direct my inner fury properly. Haha..."
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 28, 2014 10:10:18 GMT -5
Jaelyn gave a weak laugh. "With how many people here are also from Japan, I'm not sure all of them can tell the difference. But, well, hopefully if anyone else has any doubts, they'll be put to rest by the fact that you went batshit on those two earlier," she said. "Even if you're not on 'our' side, it seems pretty clear to me at least that you're not on theirs either." As for other shadows like Sakuya, Jaelyn more or less expected that answer. Given her circumstances, she doubted Sakuya would actually know many, if any more. Perhaps 'the worst' wasn't the right word choice, though. For Jaelyn, 'the worst' would be that there were tons of them, all over the city, and just like with Sakuya no one would ever be able to tell until they transformed or proved they weren't one by summoning a Persona.
But hopefully it wasn't that bad.
As Sakuya expressed her own gratefulness for how events had gone, Jaelyn looked up at her with a sly smile? "Really? I always thought I'd end up corrupting people I got close to. That's...good to hear, I think. I don't know how much more help I can be, though. I think I might be getting worse."
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 28, 2014 10:20:58 GMT -5
Sakuya chuckled. "You can only corrupt those who haven't already been corrupted to begin with, honey," she said, stroking Jaelyn's cheek gently, almost as if in a motherly manner. "I like to think I'm already on the deep end. As long as we're together, I think we can help keep each other up on our feet, yes? And as you mentioned earlier, yes, I'm not necessarily on 'their' side either. I work for myself and you only. And any potential allies that may come up. A strange girl claiming to be a princess and having the most unbalanced deductive skills known to mankind - and I wish I was joking - seemed to be on my side as well, so I guess that's also a plus? Well, we'll just see what comes up."
Puck looked at Jaelyn and then she looked at Sakuya. "From the stories Sak tells me here," Puck mentioned all of a sudden. "It strikes me that you two are so close. I'm happy for you two. Don't be afraid to drop by here more often. You know, sometimes it gets lonely here."
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 28, 2014 21:01:08 GMT -5
"I guess so," Jaelyn said, also chuckling. "And if you are on the deep end, then it's good to know I'll be in good company if I ever end up there myself. Assuming I'm not already." Normally she shied away from anything that even came close to an admission of being crazy. Deep down, she knew that she was headed down that path, but she always thought that she could stop herself before it got to be too late. She wasn't her mother. That was what she kept telling herself. But, maybe it was just the alcohol, but at the moment that path didn't seem so dark. After all, if Sakuya was already there, then she'd be walking it with her.
She raised an eyebrow at the 'princess' Sakuya mentioned. "Why would anyone here claim to be a princess? Wouldn't an actual princess have armed guards with her at all times and not interact with random strangers?" Welp, that settled it. Shadows, Personas, freezing time and eerie fog aside, this city was still weird as hell. And if someone like that was on Sakuya's 'side' as well...Jaelyn really wasn't sure what to make of that.
She called for her fourth drink, downing the rest of her last one, in time for the bartender to mention that she and Sakuya seemed close. And invited her to drop by more often. Which was easier said than done, when she had been guided here only to be going on four drinks now. "That'll depend on me remembering where it is," she said.
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 28, 2014 21:09:53 GMT -5
Sakuya shrugged. "She told me she was on exile or something. It's a long story. But yeah, this city is pretty freakin' weird now that I come to think of it. But then again, it's a good place for me where I can also be considered weird," she said. "I had no idea where the boat was gonna take me when I ran away from the country. So when it took me here, I was a bit surprised. But I guess it's all worked out well in the end for me, minus the trouble I've run into recently." Puck handed Jaelyn her fourth drink and smiled as the latter remarked that it would depend on her remembering where the establishment actually was. Puck grinned.
The bartender simply responded "There's a neon sign of a swallowtail butterfly very close to this bar. Once you see it, you can't miss this place. Antique wooden door covered in purple plush. People tend to mistake it for a nightclub, which is why nobody ever comes in. Well, nobody except those in the know. Haha..."
That may have been Sakuya's fault, but neither Puck nor Sakuya wished to admit it in front of Jaelyn.
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 29, 2014 0:44:42 GMT -5
...Exile?
...Nope, Jaelyn wasn't going to think about that. Doing so was bound to only make her head hurt. She already had alcohol for that. She grinned at what Sakuya said next though, about being weird and having the good fortune to end up in a city full of more weird things. "I guess I can say the same. I didn't actually have any say in where I ended up when I left home. My mother had already booked and signed for everything." And she had objected. So hard. But eventually those objections stopped coming, and now even the bitterness was gone. She still couldn't fathom why her mother had sent her here of all places, or so far away from home at all but, much like Sakuya's case, it had worked out well.
...Other than being trapped inside by an impenetrable barrier, of course.
She glanced back at the bartender. "Well, I guess that does stand out a bit. Still no guarantees that I'll remember enough of tonight for little details like that though." She laughed a little. Actually, even on the few occasions that she'd gotten rip roaring drunk, she still remembered bits and pieces of the night before. But something like the location of the bar wasn't likely to be one of them.
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 29, 2014 11:04:29 GMT -5
Puck shrugged. "You're the boss, ma'am." she said before retreating back into a corner of her side of the bar, watching the pair silently, but she didn't seem to be doing anything particularly bad or suspect. Sakuya blinked. "Well, anyway... Actually, I do have something I would like to talk about, regarding what happened earlier," Sakuya did end up breaking the awkward silence that had occurred since Jaelyn told the bartender she really couldn't promise she'd remember this place at all. "If that kind of battle is going to break out every time there's a full moon, there's a good chance that the situations we already saw will happen again. I just happened to be at the location at the time which was why I was there, but if I can avoid it, do you want me just not to show up? Maybe it's better that way." I said softly so that if there was anybody around they wouldn't be able to hear it.
Well, Puck was too far away this time.
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 29, 2014 18:48:46 GMT -5
Awkward silence fail as the bartender shrugged at Jaelyn's comment and backed away. Sakuya spoke up again soon after, though, and brought up a topic that Jaelyn had wanted to mention somehow. She just wasn't sure how to approach it. 'Stop helping me' certainly wasn't it, nor was 'I don't want to see you.' But 'don't show up when there's a full moon' carried implications of both. Fortunately, when Sakuya brought it up, it sounded like she understood what Jaelyn might want to say on the subject. That made it easier.
"We got lucky this time," Jaelyn said. "I don't know what happened on your side when the wall went up, but it sounds like everyone else over there had a reason not to attack you. That may not happen next time. On my side, there were a lot of people who wanted to attack that tiger thing despite its insistence that it was on our side. So...yes, it's probably best if you don't show up in the future." She closed her eyes and sighed. "It's not that I don't appreciate the help. Or seeing you. Just...not in the middle of a bunch of people who know who you are and have no reason to trust that you're not also there to kill them"
Post by Sakuya Kyoudou on Mar 30, 2014 22:03:58 GMT -5
Sakuya sighed. "I understand," she said. "I'll stay out of your way in those situations. I don't want to incriminate or endanger you as well because I'm a Shadow... Though I don't know if it's too late... I'm sorry." she continued, taking another sip from her drink, until finding out she had already emptied it a few moments ago. Jaelyn mentioned the tiger shadow who Sakuya remembered was referred to as Gin before she ditched the place with Jaelyn to come here. The Shadow remembered meeting Gin at an arcade. He didn't seem like a very dangerous person, yet the mere fact that lots of people wanted to attack him so Sakuya deduced that the same would have happened to her if she had attacked the other users. Fortunately she had the power to fend for herself, but Jaelyn...
"...I'll lay low for now."
Profile || City Home Null: Dark/Fire/Ice/Lightning/Wind/Pierce
Wk: Light, Strike
--> Heaven's Blade, Bufudyne, Mediarama, Allure
--> Unshaken Will, Passionate Inferno
P-> Kiss of Lilith
Post by Jaelyn Callahan on Mar 31, 2014 3:28:34 GMT -5
Jaelyn gave Sakuya a weak smile. It sounded like Sakuya wasn't particularly happy about her answer, but understood and accepted it. That was all she could ask. If Sakuya liked it, they wouldn't have any sort of problem and this probably wouldn't have come up in the first place. Hell, Jaelyn didn't like it either. Just having Sakuya by her side with some stupidly strong shadow packing stupidly strong wind attacks came calling would make her feel so much safer. But, because of her very nature, there was no getting around the fact that it was dangerous for Sakuya to be there.
And so long as she understood and accepted that, that would put Jaelyn's mind at ease as well. "Thank you," Jaelyn said. "And, sorry for asking that of you."