[WEEK 2, FRIDAY POST-INVESTIGATION: Akira]

[spinatalltale]

[for Akira, it's probably no surprise that Magilou goes immediately for her book once the death announcement is made and the crowd disburses. she immediately makes her way towards the jungle, journal flipped open to a blank page as she chews on the end of her quill. it isn't until she happens to look up to make sure she isn't about to run into anything that she notices him]

[and she stops in her tracks]

. . .

[she isn't saying anything because she hasn't forgotten that judging look]

Comments

[spinatalltale]

Oh?

[that doesn't surprise her. he's stood out to her the most out of anyone else on this island from the very first week they were here]

And why is that?

[jokered]

Most people can only have one Persona. The rest of my team, that's how it is. They all specialize in certain types of skills and abilities.

[...]

I can have a lot more than that. "Infinite possibility," though I can only summon a certain number at once.

[twelve, but who's counting.] I can cover all the elements and fill any gaps we need.

[...]

There's a name for that, too.

[you're gonna love it, magilou.]

[spinatalltale]

[if this was after their conversation about cards in the week 3 mingle she'd make the joke, but she can't actually, so here we are]

Multi-talented?

[NO THAT IS NOT THE NAME FOR IT MAGS]

[jokered]

...Trickster.

[that's sure what igor called him.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . . . . . . . . . .]

[oh my god?? HAS HE BEEN LAUGHING AT HER THIS WHOLE TIME]







I'm not promoting you to just "Trickster" yet, bucko.

[jokered]

[he's been laughing at her this whole time.]

I don't make the rules. That was one of the first things I was told about it from my guide.

[spinatalltale]

. . . you've been laughing at me this whole time! Don't play with a girl's heart like that!

[D:]

Who is your guide?

[jokered]

Some vague, mystical asshole named Igor.

[akira doesn't really like him very much.]

He helps a lot with my Persona business, but he's kind of a condescending dick, too.

[when will the velvet room return from the war.]

[spinatalltale]

Most mystical assholes are like that. It's part of their character archetype.

[it's just a thing. sorry Akira]

Anyway! Your title as "Trickster" isn't official until it's approved by the Benevolent Magilou! So hold onto your patience and don't expect an achievement award yet.

[hmph!]

How does he help with your Persona business?

[jokered]

He's given me some useful abilities. Things to help make my Personas stronger, the ability to carry more of them at once.

[a pause.]

He has assistants, too. [wardens, but he's not really in the mood to explain the velvet room in depth.] They help me fuse Personas to make newer, stronger ones and maintain a Compendium of what I've before in case I need to recall them.

[he glosses over her title thing, since. well. he's a trickster no matter what, anyway.]

[spinatalltale]

[yeah he is, and she knows it, but. LET HER PRETEND TO FEEL IMPORTANT HERE :(]

Sounds complicated. [but then again, artes can be pretty complex, too] What sort of form do these Personas take for you, anyway?

[jokered]

Mostly mythological figures and gods. My initial Persona was a legendary gentleman thief that's pretty famous.

Some of them aren't really like that and it's... kind of weird. And complicated.

[he pauses.] Personas are based on ego, so I guess they manifest in the form of powerful beings that exist in our cognitions.

[persona lore is weird, magilou.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . huh. too much Jungian psychology for her. but she thinks she gets it]

[but all of this begs another question]

So why would a "completely and totally average person" such as yourself have a need for such a power, anyway?

[jokered]

To combat some kind of "ruin," according to Igor.

[but whatever, igor! nobody asked you.]

We use that power for our own reasons. [he pauses, trying to decide on the best way to word it.] For our own justice. To stop corrupt adults from abusing their power, to make them confess their crimes with their own mouths.

...To change society, so that other people don't have to face the things we did.

[spinatalltale]

[vague, but she thinks she gets the gist of it. it's not all that dissimilar to her own adventures, except--]

"To make them confess their crimes wth their own mouths." A much kinder revolution than the one led by Velvet, that's for sure.

[they murdered a lot of people okay. . .]

But one stemming from deeply personal reasons. [. . .] How do you get them to confess?

[she starts easy because her next question is going to be "what sorts of things did you face?"]

[jokered]

By stealing their twisted desires. Taking their hearts.

[he says that on purpose, because of his profile.]

There's another world that exists within my own, crafted from the cognition of people. And when a person's heart becomes corrupted by desire, the Shadow of that person forms a place within it called a Palace, that houses a Treasure. Their desire.

[...]

So we search for it. We find it, and then change their cognition in the real world by letting them know we're coming for it. And then we steal it. We steal their Treasure and untwist their heart.

[it's really hard to explain.] We usually have to fight their Shadow and make them see their wrongs and accept that part of themselves. Either way, they come to their senses and come clean about their wrong-doings when it's all over.

[yeah, explaining this concisely is difficult and weird. weird weird weird.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . just as for him earlier, the pieces are starting to fall into place. that spark in his eyes she latched onto from their very first week here wasn't a product of this island. it had been there all along, simmering quietly behind an air of normalcy. it puts a lot of their conversations into perspective-- why he considers "freedom" to be an essential part of living, why he doesn't stand for abuse of power or oppressive figureheads]

[it was an easy enough assumption for her to have made, just by observing him. but it's kind of exciting to have it all confirmed]

It takes a particular kind of person to carry that heavy of a burden.

[those of strong heart and unshakable willpower. those unafraid to power forward when all of society is against them. there's only one more thing she's curious about, now]

Some of us join revolutions because we're bored. [yeah okay Mags] What made you start yours?

[because she still doesn't believe it was just a matter of him being falsely arrested twice]

[jokered]

Part of it was the first arrest, I guess. I was pretty mad after that, but I was still powerless.

[he hadn't awoken his power, he didn't have anything like that.] But the school I transferred to, there was a teacher. A sports coach, and he had a lot of influence because he was really famous.

But he was an asshole.

[just thinking about kamoshida makes his blood boil.] He used one of the students to leak that I'd been arrested and gave me a bad rep. He physically abused students; one of the members of my team, Ryuji, he broke his leg. The girls... he took advantage of them sexually.

[which will explain why akira is so adamant about being fair in the strip searches in the next trial.]

Someone else who ended up on my team, Ann, he kept trying to coerce her, threatening worse to her best friend if she didn't go along with it. Her best friend... paid the price, and she tried to kill herself because of what he did to her.

[there's an edge to his voice, growing more and more fiery as he remembers the shit kamoshida did.]

Ryuji and I found out about that other world and his Palace by accident, before I knew what he did do Ann and Suzui-san. Our power was awakened, but we didn't really know what to do with it. After we saw the rest, we knew... we knew we couldn't keep ignoring it. All the adults, the students, other teachers—they knew what a piece of shit he was and they just ignored it because it was easier, because they were afraid.

[...] After we succeeded in changing his heart, we decided to keep going, to help more people in situations like that. If they had a Palace, or a sign of a heart that needed to be changed, we could do it. We could help them.

[it's definitely a lot and akira is both fired up and a little...

almost winded to have to explain so much? he's not the one that usually does this sort of thing, and it probably shows. magilou has to know by now that being that wordy isn't really akira's style. he's into actions more than words, after all.]

[spinatalltale]

[she can definitely tell he's not used to talking this much. briefly, she wonders if he's managed to talk this much to literally anyone else on the island, or if she just happened to ask the right questions]

You did what nobody else could.

[a do-gooder at his core. like Eleanor, only. . . less Eleanor-ish??]

I wonder what the world would look like if there were more people like you in it?

[it's an idle observation, a rhetorical question. she's not expecting an answer]

[jokered]

[and she won't get one, because he only shrugs.]

...Any other questions?

[spinatalltale]

[she pauses]

Mmm, nope. I think that's all for now. Anyway, I get the feeling if I ask you to give anymore exposition you might pass out from talking too much.

[jokered]

Maybe. Exposition isn't my thing.

[that's what the rest of the phantom thieves did on his behalf.]

[spinatalltale]

[let her be a stand-in phantom thief, as he can tell she likes talking. a lot?? a lot]

[too much]

You're not bad at it. And as I said before, it means that the words you do say carry much more weight than others.

[he isn't full of hot air. like she is]

[jokered]

Maybe that's why.

[though he'll at least explain that much.]

Everyone else usually does the explaining for me. [a pause and.] I'm the leader.

[so what he says always does carry a lot of weight. he gets the final say in a handful of decisions, even if they decide unanimously on targets, and there's still so much that hinges on his words.]

[spinatalltale]

[. . . you know. she isn't surprised that he is. at all]

That's a lot of pressure, there.

[being a leader]

But something tells me you're capable of handling it.