notyourutopian | IC Contact: Recollé

Mm. With the whole...undersea lab, thing.

[She walks over and puts a hand on Eleanor's shoulder.]

I think that sounds really interesting, you know.

I'm not sure lab is the right word. It really felt like something bigger. Like a...whole city.

[She smiled faintly at the touch.]

It does, right? Like something out of a sci-fi movie.

[Sliding up behind her friend, she turned the touch into a full on hug from behind.]

Yeah. It does, kind of. The Depths or something. But it's still cool.

[Eleanor let out a long breath as Yukiko hugged her, watching the water. There was something so familiar about this, being with someone she trusted, looking out over the ocean...Mm.]

Anyway. [She laughed softly, hugging Yukiko's arms with hers.]

I can't just dwell all the time. And I want to see this sun goddess of yours.

[Yukiko nods and slowly slides back, starting off at a quick trot, leading the way in silence to a patch of trees that border the sand.

She slips inside and waves around the copse, showing burned ground and flecks of flame-cracked stone off to one side. There's also slice-marks in trees and other signs of training.]

This is where I've been practicing. And where some other stuff has happened. You ready?

Wow. [Eleanor walked to the center of the clearing, looking around slowly.]

Makes my targets feel kind of silly.

[She said with a little laugh, swingign her back off her shoulder and setting it down by a tree.]

I had some time to really set this place up. And...help.

[She winces, looking a little uncomfortable, but that fades quickly enough when Eleanor actually sits down.]

Alright. Here we go.

[The moment awaits. Yukiko holds out her right hand, blue flames beginning to ripple down her arm and coalesce into the form of a floating rectangle a little bigger than a playing card. It seems to solidify for a half second...]

Come Forth! Sumeo-Okami!

[Her fingers close, crushing the card. The air ripples with unseen energy and the sound of glass breaking shatters the silence...and behind Yukiko appears something. A figure made of golden metal, feminine, with no facial features beyond the ridge of eyebrows and nose. Her right hand holds an enormous katana, and her left grips it's matched set. The winglike arms, set with jewels, fold around Yukiko like a shield and there's a distinct pressure in the clearing as the Persona studies Eleanor with an eyeless gaze.]

I told you she was real.

[Eleanor filed away the help comment to be nosy about later, settling on the grass, but only for a moment, standing up again as Yukiko began to concentrate and that...blue fire appeared. Blue fire and a...card...?]

[When in the...]

[She had just straightened up when the woman suddenly appeared, tall and well armed and faceless and Eleanor nearly fell back to the ground in surprise, only saved by her body going rigid for a moment at all those swords.]

Bloody hell!

[The exclamation was out before she realized it, her eyes wide as she forced herself to relax a bit, enough that she could move a little closer, staring up at the faceless woman. She hadn't expected...well. She didn't know what she had expected, frankly. Not this? Maybe not anything? Had she really believed Yukiko or had she been humoring her? Well...it hardly mattered now, did it...]

That's...uh. I mean. She's ...uh. [Another pause. And then, quietly.] Bloody hell, Yukiko.

[The Persona flits across the space between Yukiko and Eleanor, hovering above her and watching, head tilted to one side in a birdlike fashion. The blades come no closer and with a flash of light they vanish, leaving the scent of chrysanthemums. Yukiko crosses the space between them and smiles almost slyly before gesturing to the being.]

I told you. I wasn't making her up.

[She knew damn well what you were thinking, Eleanor. Ever the skeptic, but not her. She was more willing to accept magic...]

Edited 2017-06-09 20:55 (UTC)

I believed you.

[Or she thought she had, anyway. Maybe believing was different from seeing, in a way. Still. She couldn't help but just keep staring at the floating golden woman. At least the term 'goddess' seemed appropriate, even if it was clearly completely not.]

She's...beautiful.

[Eleanor finally managed.]

You didn't, but I never held it against you. You're a skeptic.

[Rather matter of factly, she looks Eleanor up and down with that same placid smile.]

She's certainly that. I...wish I knew what she really was, but she's definitely a part of me. As much as my heart, or my liver. I'm just not sure why I can call her out.

I just like things I can understand.

[This was said very absently, like she wasn't entirely paying attention, really. And what Yukiko said next went completely over her head for the moment, her attention entirely on the persona. That's what it was, right? A 'Persona.' She knew it was something from psychology but beyond that...nothing. And even that hardly seemed to apply here.]

[After a few seconds her hand came up, almost tentatively, haltingly closing the space between her and the persona, just to try and touch her. Just on the arm.]

[She had to be sure...]

[The Persona stood there, just...accepted the touch. There was the distinct sense of smiling despite the lack of a mouth, and a lightening of the pressure in the air. As close to laughter as it could manage.]

It's solid. It's carried me before. And it's saved my life twice.

Huh.

[It was more a sound of thoughtfulness than a word, as Eleanor's hand settled against the Persona. Just...resting there. It was real. She was real. Already her mind was trying to make sense of it, trying to figure out some kind of rational explanation, but she just let those thoughts whirl away in the back of her brain.]

Carried, huh? I guess that-saved your life?

[And she was whirling around to stare at her friend.] Saved your life from what?!

[She's warm, kind of metallic feeling, and watches Eleanor until the hand is removed. As quickly as she appeared, she vanishes, leaving behind only that scent of flowers and a whiff of heat.

Yukiko signed, gesturing around the clearing.]

First it was when we were tiny. She killed a dragonfly for me. Just...cut it in half.

[Please don't be the 900th person to ask why dragonflies are dangerous. They are carnivores...and you should know this.]

The second time was here. I was practicing alone, late at night. And something came out of the woods and tried to kill me. A...well, it's something from that other world I think. Like a Persona, but different. It came out of Ryoji, and went on a rampage. Sumeo-Okami defeated it, and saved both of us.

[The dragonfly thing made sense, Eleanor had fought beetles and cats herself, but the rest...]

You were attacked by some kind of rampaging persona-thing that could've killed you and you didn't tell me?

[What.]

Well, I came out of it fine. Not so much as a scratch, because of her. And Ryoji...he asked me to keep it quiet. Because he just wasn't sure how to deal with it. But he has it under control now.

[She sighs, slumping down as she sits on a rock.]

I also didn't want to distress you this close to graduation, but I couldn't keep it from you any more. Not now that he's actually figured it out.

Sorry, El.

It's...it's fine.

[Eleanor hesitated, sitting down slowly into the grass, her legs crossed. So Yukiko could summon some kind of goddess that was part of her, and it had saved her from some boy...Ryoji, that name sounded familiar...and his...what, also a persona? Persona-thing.]

...Does that mean you guys remember the same place? In your memories. If you have the same kind of...persona thing.

[Yukiko shuffles over to Eleanor, sitting beside her now.]

I told you before I remembered one of the twins, and Minako. I've also remembered Yosuke. But not Ryoji.

[A beat.]

Naoto remembers me, though. So I think that's a connection. And Ryoji remembers Minako. So they're connected. Chain of logic follows that we're tied together somehow. Along with that girl Chie.

But it's weird. We're either in Japan. Or inside some sort of foggy...place...that feels like a different world somehow.

Huh.

[Well that was...quite a few people, really. She knew Yukiko had remembered some but...wow.]

I've heard of a few people like this. Like, groups of people remembering similar things.

[She shrugs her shoulder.]

So far it's just me though. Probably a good thing, I doubt a lot of people want to remember weird underwater cities and crazy people in masks.

That's...not even the weirdest thing.

[Yukiko scrubs her face, preparing to just say it.]

Most of us remember...stepping into a TV. Like, just...going inside one. Into that foggy world.

...Stepping into a TV.

[Eleanor said this, frowned, said it more quietly to herself again, frowned some more, then actually laughed.]

Like...right in through the glass? Like it was some kind of magic portal?

Just like that. It was like stepping through a gate or something like in a movie.

I don't really know how to describe it but I swear it's true. Just like my Persona.

Well I can hardly start doubting you now, right? [Eleanor smiled, but her expression was curious.]

Have you tried it here?

Of course. But...not yet. Maybe it's not an ability I've gained yet. Or there's a trick to it I don't know.

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