Persona in the Playground~Park's Pinnacle

[Xhosant]

Soga took a look around him. This place was perfect.

After school, he decided to walk around town to find where he could make true of his proposal, and his footsteps lead him to the park. And there you had it; a corner of the park, near a kiosk, but off through the trees instead of any well-walked path of the kiosk's crossroads. And in it was a small rocky hill, more like a big boulder than anything bigger, barely 15 feet tall.

One would think it hard to scale, but a walk around it revealed an easy path, making reaching the top a casual walk. And from the top, one could see above and across the park. The wind blew almost fiercely, but pleasantly and the place was wide and littered with outcroppings that made for a great seat.

He'd doubt anyone had noticed it here, after all he had a knack for seeing and knowing things nobody else bothered to.

They'd be at peace here. All in all, this place was perfect.

That was it, then. He'd hang out here, and he'd bring the others too. With drinks at almost hand's reach, this was basically a cafeteria with one hell of a view.

Think the climbing stone in central park, only less people-y and with a shortcut. I'd like a clock tower too, but that's been done.:smalltongue:

[dethkruzer]

Davis usually wasn't the kind who would respond to invites like this. But after what the day had been like, he just didn't feel like going home, not that he really felt like going home now-a-days at all. He'd only come home to another one of the innumerable arguments, where he would sooner or later have pick sides, causing only more grief in the ned.

He used to come to the park sometimes when he first moved here, but that was years ago. Walking amidst the trees and bushes brought bakc memories, memories of when things were better. His gaze turned to the large boulder, He would come here with his father, who would lift Davis onto his shoulders, where he could enjoy the breeze and the view. A sigh escaped him, perhaps he could go up there, just for old times sake.

Walking around the boulder, he followed the path up to the top of the boulder, only to find it wasn't vacant. "Oh, Soga-senpai, I wasn't expecting you here, did I come at a bad time?"

[Xhosant]

"Oh, Davis-kun." Soga was notably surprised.

"Well, yes and no. I wanted to bring you to this place, so you popping up ruined the surprise. Then again, i guess you coming here means there was no surprise to begin with, so that's that."

Soga turned back towards the horizon.

"Isn't this place interesting? So beautiful, so obvious, yet very few seem to take notice. You can see so far from here, yet this place isn't really visible from anywhere in the park, is it?"

Beware: Time-wise, this is after our first trip through the door, but before the current story thread begins (next morning). I figure, we're supposed to bring people over after tomorrow's school, sort-of.

Welcome to a flashback!

[dethkruzer]

Davis walked slowly over to Soga's side, not turning to look at him, instead simply staring into the horizon. He contemplated what Soga had said for a while. "Yeah, You're right, I suppose kids nowadays just don't care for natural beauty like this anymore." He spoke, before sighing.

He then turned to one of the outcroppings, which he proceeded to sit onto. "But yeah, bringing the others here, I imagine they'd enjoy that." Davis spoke after a moment, staring up into the sky, a longing glint in his eyes.

[Xhosant]

Soga kept silent for a while, starring off in the horizon.

After a while, he spoke again.
"Davis-senpai, what do you make of all this? And of the others?"

[dethkruzer]

"I... Really don't know what to think about all this. Our Persona, the Velvet Door, those... Things beyond the door. It all defies my understanding." He replied, a tad of irritation in his tone.

After a brief pause, Davis chuckled. "Although, if I'm gonna be honest, I was kinda glad to find out there were others like, who had a Persona..." He trailed off, closing his eyes. He then leaned forward, slumping down to rest his elbows on his knees, before continuing. "Because when Strigoi first came out, I thought I had gone insane... Hell, I might just be insane, this all might just be happening in my head." He finished, capping it off with a short but hearty laugh.

[Xhosant]

Soga smiled. "If that's the case, kudos to your imagination."

"To be honest, I kind-of enjoy it. I mean, the whole deal, the danger and the adventure... It's exciting. I'm still a little suspicious of the school itself... but that's probably the one too many stories I've read.

[dethkruzer]

Davis nods. "I can't blame you for craving a bit of excitement, school gets tedious soooo fast, and even with club activities, you'll sooner or later find yourself wanting for something to spice things up. I understand, and quite frankly, can relate to that." He then spoke, hardly realizing how badly he was getting "out of character".

"I doubt it's just the school behind this, they probably have some really influential people behind the scenes, possibly even the government. But imagine if word got out about this, the confusion would no doubt lead to panic and chaos." He continued, pausing for a moment to slightly adjust his position, laying on his back onto the outcropping. "And there are still so many things we don't understand about the Door. What if it worked both ways? What if someone could just sneak in and release those monsters onto the general public?"

[Xhosant]

"Exactly. Who runs things? As for keeping them in, i guess that's where we come in."

"I wonder if they can be controlled... Not much reason to bring them out, otherwise."

[dethkruzer]

"Controllable or not, those monsters would still be bad news if they ended up in the wrong hands." Davis replied. He then paused for a moment to sit up, turning his gaze toward Soga. "Although I suppose that's another reason to fight them, if those monsters can be kept in check that way."

[Xhosant]

"Makes you wonder, why don't they simply cement it up? I doubt they could make it through the door then, even if they were too many to fit past the door... "

"Say, how did your persona awaken? Strigoi, wasn't it? "

[BurntDownDream]

Hikaen shows up at that point and says: "I thought I heard some familiar voices, seems like I was right."

After that he approaches Soga and Davis and continues with a greeting.

"How are you guys feeling after all this?"

[Xhosant]

"Hikaen-kun? Did you hear us from far?"

Soga frowned. If that was the case, talking about the Velvet Door here was a no-no, after all. And he was quite convinced the place wouldn't be common knowledge. Hopefully, Hikaen just had a taste for the woods...

"Anyway," he said, back to his usual attitude, "since we're at it, care to share with us how your "pet" woke up?"

Might as well avoid sensitive words until we know there's no echo or anything...

[dethkruzer]

"yeah, a bit of a funny story behind that, it was after..." He began, when he heard a familiar voice. Turning around, he recognized the boy from earlier today. "Hikaen-senpai, what brings you here?" Davis aksed, slightly befuddled.

Waiting for a moment, he replied to Hikaen. I'm okay, I went to the nurse after the "field trip", she gave me some pain killers and started preaching something about not sitting in front of a computer all night." And after that, he turned to Soga. "Stigoi is... how would I put it..." He began, but quickly trailed off into a near-silent muttering.

[BurntDownDream]

"I knew you would be here, is what I would like to say, but I am here actualy because this is where my persona first awakened. I came to think about all that happened today and also try to figure some things out..."

Hikaen was a bit hesitant. He didn't know if it was alright to share the stroy about his persona.

...Well lets say that this place, being remote and all, played a part when my persona awakened. That is all I am going to share for now.

[Xhosant]

"Playing all mysterious, both of you? "

"Mine was the lamest story ever. along story short, I tripped at a high place, and Cel caught me. Guess it was as much danger as I've ever been in... Meh"

[dethkruzer]

"Well, I suppose if you really want to know." Davis replied to Soga, before pausing for about a minute.

"I suppose it all started when I thought that making fun of this one student was a good idea, and thinking about it in retrospect, it probably really wasn't. But anyways, I pulled a few practical jokes on him, and as you would expect, he didn't take it all that well, and neither did his overprotective older brother." He began, but paused for a moment. "I was out late that day, and when I was walking through a strip mall on my way home, someone pulled me into an alley. It was that student from earlier, and his older brother. As you might expect, the proceeded to beat me up pretty harshly, but what came next was even worse."

He paused again, shuddering for a moment, and after about half a minute, Davis resumed. "The older brother pulled a gun on me, or at least at the time I thought it was a gun, turned out later it was just a toy. Apparently they intended the scare the hell out of me, but that's when something in my head snapped." Davis once again had to pause, this time to chuckle for a moment. "I remember bits from here and there, but there was a lot of screaming and chaos. The kid didn't come to school the following day, and a week later I heard he had transferred elsewhere." He then finished, dropping from his sitting position back into lay-on-his-back pose, staring up into the clouds.

"And that, as they say, is that." He pronounced with his heavily accented English.

[Xhosant]

"That's what they call conflict escalation, isn't it?"

Soga left a low chuckle.

"Well, now you better enjoy this, lest it be said you had it coming.", he added with a sly smile.

[BurntDownDream]

"I don't know about you guys but in my case there is a memory gap."

Hikaen taked a small notebook out of his pocket and watches it while he continues talking.

"I am still wondering what happened that day actualy from a point onward. But I've got to say a hell of a lot happened that day... Actualy why not lets try this."

Hikaen places the notebook back in his pocket and takes out his cell phone. He searches a bit through it and then shows Soga and Davis an image of an old man and a little boy. The old man's skin was slightly taned, he had white hair, medium sized and a small white beard. His eyes were closed so you couldn't see their color. The boy had black hair, realy white skin and was holding what looked like a picture book in his hands.

"Have you maybe seen one of those two somewhere?"

You could clearly see that Hikaen was hoping for a positive answer with all his heart even though he rarely shows any emotion, while at the same time expecting a negative answer. Anyone could clearly understand that there was a big story behind all this, but Hikaen was still not willing to share it.

[Xhosant]

Soga took a long look at the picture, looking for anything characteristic he might recognize. Eventually, he shrugged.

"I can't say I recognize them, but I can't be sure I've never seen them before either. How long ago was the picture taken?"

[BurntDownDream]

Soga took a long look at the picture, looking for anything characteristic he might recognize. Eventually, he shrugged.

"I can't say I recognize them, but I can't be sure I've never seen them before either. How long ago was the picture taken?"

"About a year ago, roughly. You might have seen the old guy in this park sometimes. As for the boy I doubt any of you has ever actualy seen him. The old man is called Trevor and the little boy Ethan. If you ever happen to see one of them please tell me."

Hikaen then turns to Davis

"How about you Davis-kun? Have you seen them?"

[dethkruzer]

Standing back up, Davis walks over to Hikaen, and takes a good long look at the picture. "Hmmmm..." The boy hummed for a moment before shaking his head. "Nope, I can't remember seeing either of them before."

[Xhosant]

"Trevor and Ethan, huh? Names don't ring any bells..."

Soga sighted, then cheered up again.

No worries. If they show up around here, I'll be sure to find them! How hard can it be?"

"Say, are they relatives? They don't look very much alike, but still."

I wonder how that came up now... Well, I guess the best way to an answer is through finding the pair itself.

[BurntDownDream]

"No, not relatives. But still we are very close to each other. You could even say that they are closer to me than my relatives, that's why I find it weird that they suddenly disapeared on me."

Hikaen puts his cell phone back in his pocket.

"I will share the story with you some other time though."

[dethkruzer]

"Oh really?" Davis aks, drawing out the pronunciation as a mischievous grin spread across his face. He took a step toward Hikaen, poking him in the chest with a bit more force than was probably necessary. "That's a promise then." He said, before letting out another hearty laugh.

[Xhosant]

"Fair enough!"

And I just may give you some more of my story when you do...

[Xhosant]

After staying around for a while, small-talking with the other two and enjoying the scenery, Soga stretches and gets up.

"Think I'll call it a day, guys."

Stepping towards the way down, he adds, with a knowing gesture towards Davis, "Let's come over here again soon. Might as well bring over some of the others too, Liu in particular."

And with that, and a subtle smile, he's off.

[BurntDownDream]

"I'm going to go as well. I feel pretty tired after what happened today. Might as well get some rest.

Hikaen waves at Davis and then says: "See you tomorrow then".

[dethkruzer]

"Later!" Davis replied in english as he waved goodbye. Even after Soga and Hikaen left, he stayed on the boulder for a little longer, just staring at the sky. Around fifteen minutes later, he finally came down, a slight smile on his face.

Perhaps it was time to go home.

[Philemonite]

This social link thread is complete.:smallwink:

Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Fortune Arcana.

Fortune-Rank I
Once per battle you can force an enemy to re-roll and attack directed at you.

Hikaen Bond-Rank I
When performing a physical combination attack with Hikaen you add +1 damage.

Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Tower Arcana.

Tower-Rank I
You gain a permanent +1 to your physical damage resistance.

Davis-Rank I
When intercepting an attack aimed at Davis you add +1 to your physical damage resistance.



Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Judgment Arcana.

Judgment-Rank I
You gain a permanent +1 to your Light and Dark damage resistance.

Soga Bond-Rank I
When performing a physical combination attack with Soga you add +1 damage.

Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Tower Arcana.

Tower-Rank I
You gain a permanent +1 to your physical damage resistance.

Davis-Rank I
When intercepting an attack aimed at Davis you add +1 to your physical damage resistance.



Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Judgment Arcana.

Judgment-Rank I
You gain a permanent +1 to your Light and Dark power.

Soga Bond-Rank I
As long as Soga is in your party you add +1 to your elemental damage.

Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed with the power of Fortune Arcana.

Fortune-Rank I
Once per battle you can re-roll one of your elemental attacks.

Hikaen Bond-Rank I
As long as Hikaen is in your party you add +1 to your elemental damage.