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Tweak says, "DOWN IN A HOOOLE!!!!"

Sonozaki Renju [園崎蓮珠] (lotus_beyond) wrote in disappear_plot,
@ 2010-06-22 22:28:00

Mikio Seiji Dungeon Investigation Redux

WHO: Renju, Kozue, Masami, Yoshi
WHAT: Trip back into Seiji's dungeon.
WHERE: Butterfly Room and into Paradise from there.
WHEN: Some indeterminate non-school point after Renju started growing a spine.
WHY: Isn't it obvious?

Renju's heart was beating in her chest far faster than she'd ever admit.

It wasn't at the prospect of returning to Seiji's place. Apart from the ever-present strange white light (and Seiji himself), it hadn't been dangerous the first time, and she doubted it would be dangerous now. Besides, strange though it was to think so, Paradise in and of itself rarely held much fear for her now.

But she was leading. Somehow, she'd taken upon herself without really thinking about it the responsibility for not only her own life, but, indirectly, everyone else's as well. It had been startling and sobering to suddenly realize the implications of her organizing these missions, and yet...

And yet she felt up to it, something she wouldn't have been able to say even a mere month ago. She was never the sort of doubt her own competence when it wasn't merited, but the idea of her taking charge in any way besides just pushing the team forward had simply been unthinkable. She wasn't sure where the sudden boost had come from; perhaps it was an unconscious way of trying to prove to herself that she didn't need her Persona to be useful.

At any rate, implications and explanations aside, she was in the Butterfly Room, waiting for the others, Wisteria Fields bag in hand. She was flipping the weightless XII-marked keychain in her other hand (her research so far into the numbers had been no help--the number 19 was apparently significant in the Quran, which would also explain the angels, but the individual numbers had no particular significance), debating whether and how to bring them with her. Seiji had been quite clear about not bringing them into Paradise, but the matter of why was less clear than she'd have liked.

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	WHEN THEY REACH THE DUNGEON disappear_npc 2010-06-29 08:29 am UTC (link)
	The only difference between Mikio's place now and the last time they were there is that the light, glowy patches appear to have become more plentiful. There is nothing to be found in the wax museum, no new figures or clues, and when they get to the place where they found Raphael, he is still there, sitting atop the rock rather than chained to it. (Reply to this) (Thread)

Re: WHEN THEY REACH THE DUNGEON

lotus_beyond
2010-06-29 11:27 pm UTC (link)

Renju had been leery about going in so short-handed, despite her seeming confidence about the whole matter. It was true that Seiji's place hadn't been particularly dangerous as long as you followed its rules (and Renju was relieved to see that continue to be the case, for the most part), but there were few places in Paradise that could even be said to approach 'safe'. This, with its growing number of bright patches, as if Paradise were slowly consuming it, could not be said to be one of them.

That, and they were going to visit an angel. And no matter how powerful Masami was, Renju doubted she could kill (subdue? destroy?) one alone. It was chained, true, and the danger thus minimized, but it was impossible for Renju to forget the team's first encounter with them, and how much that spell had hurt. Could the butterfly save them a second time? Would it? So far as she knew, they'd never needed to test it, close though they'd come once or twice. Thoughts thus occupied, Renju was quiet as the team proceeded through the scrambled rooms and picked their way around the searing light to the dungeon's end.

And then they reached it, and the angel was free.

Renju's blood turned to ice in her veins, and her mouth went bone-dry. She'd just doomed them. Twice over if Seiji had been lying, and how had she not suspected...

She swallowed once, twice, and managed to rasp out, "H-how?"

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Re: WHEN THEY REACH THE DUNGEON

disappear_npc
2010-06-30 07:41 pm UTC (link)

When he noticed them coming, Raphael lifted his head wearily, wearing a tired, familiar-looking smile. At Renju's obvious fear and faltering, he tipped his head, the rest of his body still statue-still.

"How...?" he repeated, apparently confused by the question. "What do you mean, Sonozaki-san?"

His eyes drifted from Renju to watch something invisible, moving at his left.

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Re: WHEN THEY REACH THE DUNGEON

lotus_beyond
2010-06-30 11:10 pm UTC (link)

Renju looked quickly at the others, as though to reassure herself that they were still there. She hadn't expected quite so... non-hostile a response, given their last encounter with a non-imprisoned angel, and its general apparent tolerance for them was throwing her off even more. It had even addressed her more politely than a significant portion of the team typically did. Seiji's general opinion of it had led her to believe that it would be no better than the rest of them had been, but...

"Mikio-kun... He had you chained here last time." Renju's gaze flicked in the direction that the angel's were drifting in; seeing nothing, she locked it back where it had been. Her fear was starting to fade, if only a little. "How did you break free?"

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Re: WHEN THEY REACH THE DUNGEON

disappear_npc
2010-06-30 11:26 pm UTC (link)

His eyes followed the apparently-nothing for a few moments more. When he looked back to Renju, he lifted a hand to rub slowly at his head, then let it settle in his lap again before he spoke.

"Don't you remember what happened?"

His head was still inclined at that curious angle, and now he looked about as dismayed and uncomfortable as the small group confronting him.

"Ah -- I -- Mikio-kun didn't chain me here, it was the others -- You let me out when you gave me your persona, remember? So that I -- we -- could help?"

The tentative, hopeful smile matched his tone, but failed to conceal his disappointment.

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OH GOD OH MAN ETC.

anthesphoria
2010-06-30 11:35 pm UTC (link)

Having never been into this part of Paradise before (she'd missed it last time, had been on the train to her hometown just a scant few hours after getting the phonecall about her grandmother), Kozue had been walking with the group, gazing about curiously. Her curiosity had been balanced with nerves, at first—going into Paradise with just four people, and four relatively quiet, sane people was a strange, slightly jarring experience. Lacking Shadows, stupid costumes, and dance music in addition to lacking sniping and fighting and back-chatter among the group made things even more surreal.

But nothing happened, nothing came at them or even seemed to notice them, and over the course of the fairly short trip, Kozue's anxiety had eased and eased, until only curiosity remained.

Now, though?

She looked a bit like a small animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, standing there with the group, in her pretty designer shoes and with her tennis racket hanging loosely in her hand as if it did something actually effective every now and again. This was something that wanted to kill them. This was something that had tried to kill them, hadn't it? This was something that...

Wanted to help them?

It was an effort to call up the will to speak, but after a moment, Kozue managed it. "So... you... want to help us?" Oh, that sounds brainless, Kozue chided herself. It was the first mostly logical thought she had had since sighting Raphael. She swallowed and made herself talk like a normal, sane human being. And at least partway, it worked. "Well, we're here to be helped, so that's good." She forced a smile—maybe making the angel look a bit less sad and downtrodden and Mikio-like was a good strategy.

It was still stupid. At least it didn't sound terrified.

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	Re: OH GOD OH MAN ETC. disappear_npc 2010-07-03 02:25 am UTC (link)
	"Yeah!" He really did resemble Seiji, especially given how fragile and vaguely nervous his smile looked. Raphael looked at each member of the team in turn, eyes eventually settling on Renju. "... So why are you all here?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: OH GOD OH MAN ETC.

lotus_beyond
2010-07-06 02:50 am UTC (link)

It was strange and jarring, how much the angel resembled Seiji. It made Renju wonder who could possibly correspond to the others; if Uriel and Michael were anything like their human (hosts? counterparts? She still didn't fully understand, and the angel was not exactly helping with that), well, she suspected they were people with whom she wouldn't particularly care to be acquainted anyway.

... could Hikaru really be one of them?

There would be time for speculation (and perhaps proof, if all went well with Toru's group) later. For the time being, they were there for a reason, and Renju was feeling confident enough to return to that reason. "We have some questions for you. There was a great deal that Mikio-kun was--presumably unable to answer." Unable or unwilling, though Renju probably leaned less towards the latter at this point than much of the rest of the team. "And I suppose the first ought to be: what precisely are you?"

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Re: OH GOD OH MAN ETC.

disappear_npc
2010-07-08 08:05 pm UTC (link)

Raphael frowned, and took a moment to consider Renju's question before answering. The nervous air that usually surrounded anything to do with Seiji had dissipated, and gravity seemed to have settled in around him.

"It's difficult to answer that, Sonozaki-san," he said slowly. "I would call myself a... guardian, of sorts. But then, that isn't completely correct - like how I would call Mikio-kun a human, but that wouldn't be quite right, either."

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	Re: OH GOD OH MAN ETC. disappearedmods 2010-07-16 04:12 am UTC (link)
	http://kettledragon.net/kondohole/seijiinvestigation.htm (Reply to this) (Parent)

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