R n' R [Jonathon]

[Seiji Dalton]

The grub that the strange blonde lady served at the gap was pretty darn good. He asked for a hamburger and it was given to him. "Guess it's part of the payment for salvaging goods." The fool said dourly at he sat beside his stolen mall kiosk and and dug into the tasty burger. Looking down the street, he saw the other shop stall but saw that it was unoccupied. Luckily, the honor system was there to prevent someone from stealing the goods offered by either of the shopkeepers.

Sighing in content, Seiji took a moment to reflect on the events of the past month. He'd been a major player in the fight to kill a tentacle wearing imitation of the grim reaper, he'd made some nice new friends, and a girl had even managed to tug on his heartstrings. All things considered, he'd had a good month. And that all went without even mentioning his Persona's power and the tremendous growth that he'd undergone in a relatively short amount of time. Looking around, he wondered if he'd see any familiar faces either on their way to hunt shadows or coming back for a bit of relaxation before heading home.

[Jonathon Montoya]

Jonathon walked down the street. He hadn't really done much here but he'd heard it was a good place to get a bite to eat. Sitting down next to someone he ordered a burger and a drink, not really caring what he got. He then noticed who was next to him. "Seiji? Good to see a familiar face out here." He said to the other boy. "So, I guess you're hanging in there after the fight at the Cemetery. Once I got other the poison and all the aches I was fine. Also, getting poison out of your system with no medicine is torturous, I don't recommend it. So, what's up?"

[Seiji Dalton]

Jonathon. That was someone he hadn't seen for a while. "Jonathon Montoya. Good to see you, man." Seiji gave his friend a pat on the shoulder. He hadn't had a chance to talk to him after the fight with the boss on the night of the full moon. They were both doing well, well enough to be eating burgers at a rest station. "Hanging in there as best I can. Trying to find answers 'bout what's going on here."

He took a bit out of his burger, chewing it over thoughtfully. "Saw you at that meeting of Alisa's, too. Small world we live in. I'd better get this out of the way while it's on my mind, d'you mind giving me your cell number so we can team up some time?" He'd teamed up with Alisa for a trip into the outer circle the night before the full moon and they'd found something approaching answers to what was going on.

"And if you ever need to get poison out of your system in a hurry, there's this really great doctor on Mimoza Corner. Well, under it to be more specific...doesn't ask questions but he'll fix you up good." He kind of felt bad about helping an underground doctor that made a profit off of fixing gangsters get ahead, but Jonathon probably needed the help, "Plus there's that Indian girl with the anti-poison spell...if you can find her."

[Jonathon Montoya]

"The worst part of it was the sort of hung over woozy feeling after ward. The whole coughing up all sort of stuff and feeling like I'm about to die was tolerable, just kind of...sucked." Jonathon said, using a rather American term he'd kept. "Plus, I doubt going to a doctor would do much for me. After all, trying to explain to someone that I got sick because of a giant demon grim reaper. The Indian girl though...she was in the cemetery too." Jonathon then glanced over at Seiji. "Now, do you suggest that just because you want me to seek improvement to my health from her skills. Or do you just want to spend time with her? Don't worry, you can tell me if you fancy her or not."

[Seiji Dalton]

Well, Jonathon was jumping to some interesting conclusions. Mulling it over in his head, he couldn't say whether or not he fancied the Indian girl. As far as first impressions went, she gave him a good one by curing his poison, but he didn't think he liked her like that. As far as liking someone went, he liked Isolde or another cute girl that would remain unnamed more.

For now, he just shrugged. "I dunno. I'd have to talk to her more to know if I liked her or not. I was just saying she's in the know and can cure some mean poison." He said blankly with only a little dramatic flair in his voice. "Anyone you fancy, Jonathon? Gotta be someone stirring up heat in your love life amidst a full blown shadow crisis."

[Jonathon Montoya]

Jonathon shrugged as his first comment. "Fine, you don't like the Indian girl. I've been wrong before. As for me...well..." It was strange, thinking about it, the only name and face that came to him was Holley, which was really strange. They'd only really met one on one that time in the park and she was kind of mean to him. Yet, something about her was attractive to him. He didn't want to admit it though, he wasn't sure how he really felt. "I...I'm not interested in any one at the moment. I'm just a bit too preoccupied with everything going on right now."

[Seiji Dalton]

"Yeah." Seiji said blankly at Jonathon's statement that there were more pressing matters to attend to than who is going to the prom with who. There were a hundred different things going on and each and every single one was probably more important than his love life. Granted, thinking about Isolde for too long made him blush, but there was some weird feeling that came along with her that was kind of hard to shrug off. Jonathon had a good head on his shoulders as far as Seiji could tell. He was certainly glad he'd ran across the other teenager in his travels. Sometimes, seeing a familiar face in hostile territory was all the push he needed.

"So, found out anything good, man? I ran into one of those boss shadows you were telling me 'bout last time. We fought it together right where we had our first conversation, in the lobby of the executive building." It was a nice change of pace to be able to talk openly about his use of Personas with someone without using a hushed voice. It was a luxury he wasn't usually afforded in the city.

[Jonathon Montoya]

"I have a feeling there's more of them." Jonathon said, taking a bite of his burger. It wasn't the best thing he'd eaten, it was actually kind of bad, but he'd stomach it. "I have a feeling everywhere that shadows swarm will have one of those. Plus there's the thing we fought on the full moon. That was weird, time stopped till we beat it. If these things have that kind of power, I'd hate to see what's controlling them. Plus, the reaper thing talked...That was probably the worst part of the encounter. It was so unnerving." He then turned the Seiji. "So, what do you think about it?"

[Seiji Dalton]

"That'd just be too easy if we killed one big shadow and suddenly the city's back to normal again, huh?" His voice being as neutral as ever, it was up for debate whether he was amused, disgruntled, or unnerved by the turn of events. "And that shadow talking...it was...surprising to say the least. It makes me wonder if our Personas can talk, not that there'd be much point to them talking considering they're literally us. I'll have to look into that later."

It wasn't until the next day when he questioned Takeda about what happened that Seiji learned that time seemed to stand still while they were fighting the tentacle reaper, grim squeaker, or whatever else people called the monster. The supernatural elements of the outer circle just got more and more extraordinary. "And I think we're very lucky that so many people showed up to fight that shadow. Imagine if only a handful of people had decided to come around for the fight...we'd all be doomed."

[Jonathon Montoya]

"I don't know. I mean, it might work. I've never tried talking to my persona, of course, mine is a giant...snake..." He said, summoning the card and looking at it, watching it turn and seeing the small picture of Orochi. Letting it fade he took a sip of his soda. "And yeah, I'm glad we managed to get a small army together. Of course, it makes sense. Time stops and we're the only ones to realize it? Of course us persona users would be the ones drawn to the source of the weirdness. Do you think it'll happen again? On the next full moon."

[Seiji Dalton]

"Eh, I bet the giant eight headed snake would just talk in riddles anyway." Seiji remarked upon seeing Jonathon's Persona on the card. He'd seen it twice before but Personas were always so interesting to look at. Some of them reflected the inner self of the user quite well (like Takeda's), some were weird (like Ran's), but it was strange to look at Jonathon's considering his Persona wasn't even human shaped.

The other teenager raised a very interesting point though. The moon had been full the night of the reaper's appearance, but did that have anything to do with its appearance? Seiji didn't know whether he wanted to believe that or not considering that meant a fight was coming next month."Huh...I hadn't thought about that. It's too early to tell if you're right though. Say, what parts of the outer circle have you explored recently?"

[Jonathon Montoya]

Jonathon shrugs. "The longer you're out here, the less you realize what's going on. I've been to the office building several times though." Jonathon wasn't sure why he really liked going there so much, he just did. "There's a few other area's I've stopped and explored also. It may sound strange, but this is the first time I've actually spent a lot of time in the Gap. It didn't really appeal to me, yet now that I've been here, it's just a lot calmer then inside the circle." Jonathon took another bite of his burger and leaned back a little. "So, what've you been up to seiji? Besides fighting giant shadows?"

[Seiji Dalton]

Jonathon wasn't alone in holding most of his opinions. The gap was calmer than most places in the inner circle and he didn't have to mind his volume when discussing sensitive subjects. Who was going to overhear them, the lady that probably knew all the answers and was just toying with them and not revealing anything? She paid too well for random junk brought in from the outer circle for anyone to grumble and complain too much, but sometimes he wanted to just tell her to give him answers instead of money.

"I've been exploring a lot of different places. I helped kill a computer, like I already said, been trying to keep my head above water with my grades. I fought a washed up wrestler in a hospital and nearly got killed, and most recently I've been delving deep into some mines. All in all, the past few weeks have been full of adventure...even as one night seems to mesh into the next more and more. Out of curiosity, how're you doing in school, assuming you go? Not letting your moonlight career ruin your grades, are you?" While he didn't exactly sound concerned, he obviously seemed to be considering he knew how thin a tightrope people like them walked, trying to balance a normal social life with the burden they all shared.

[Jonathon Montoya]

"I'm doing alright, I guess." He shrugged when asked about school. "It's strange, it's become more of an after thought. I work in school and I get good grades, but I don't really focus. I'm too busy worrying about the rest of the world. The fact that if we fail, everything comes crashing down. It's kind of daunting, but no, I'm stuck in pre calculus, learning something I won't ever use in the future, even if we manage to stop the shadows." Jonathon took a moment and sighed before finishing his burger. "It was good chatting with you though Seiji, really. I need to get going though." He said as he paid for his food and left.