scintillatingbrightness-blog

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“...Ugh.”

Lyra’s eyes flick open groggily; her head hurts at the temples, but she’s not really sure why.  There’s something below her and rubbing up against her head, and it’s itchy—some sort of branch or leaves.  Her trusty parasol she still grips in hand, at least.  There’s the sound of something dripping, but at irregular intervals, and it bothers her so much that her head throbs a little more until she opens her eyes, mostly out of annoyance.

The boy from before is by her now, and he says something that registers about five seconds after the fact, something about her health.  She feels sort of bad in the way that one usually feels sort of bad when a little boy looks worried because of something one did.  Or something that happened, in this case.

“Yes... I believe I’m fine.  Are you?”  She pulls herself up to a sitting position and takes stock of her surroundings.  No Shadows in sight, for starters—a good sign.  Lyra can’t seem to find the source of the dripping, but she has an idea from her surroundings.  Dark, humid, and the ground hard, except for a snapped-off branch where her head was—they’d encountered trees at some point during the fall, which no doubt saved them.  Maybe it was by design.

“Well, the climate is an interesting change from the town.  And it doesn’t look like we’re in any danger—right now.”  She opens her parasol absentmindedly, resting it in her shoulder.  “More importantly, it looks like we’re in the dungeon.  Do you have your Persona yet?”

That particular scolding is enough to startle him into paying more attention. He forgets the term she used because he doesn’t know what it means, but her tone is enough to have him second-guessing himself. Suddenly Claus feels as if he attacked her in some way; a hand quickly withdrawn is coupled by guilt blooming in his stomach. He shoves both offenders into his pockets. Before he can give it much more thought, the world is moving very fast. Shadows that had been an afterthought were of relevance now. Her eyes meet his when he realizes he’s going to fall, but they portray very little of the fear he feels in that instance. Before long, he doesn’t have time to be feeling anything at all. He’s too busy succumbing to his fight or flight response.  For a short time in their spiral Claus has mind to help her, but finds himself too overwhelmed in a personal plight. His hand, reduced to half of its dexterity, was nothing more than a metal bludgeon. He is able to draw his sword with more precision, but that does him little quickly. Finally, though, the Shadow dissipates from their efforts. Immediately after, Claus shuts down. He collapses on the earth like a ragdoll, but his body makes a harsher noise than one made of purely flesh and bone. In time, he stirs. Waking up is surreal, and he doesn’t even remember that he’s in any sort of danger until he can think properly again. The child rubs his head, knees curling to chest while he gathers his bearings. When he can actually look without his head throbbing, he dumbly recalls the girl who’d fallen with him. 

“Hey. Hey–you okay?" 

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"Oh, I see,” Lyra says, nodding along to Togami’s explanations.  “Our powers being removed here is quite unfortunate... You’d think that the Velvet Room would leave those with us.”  She shrugs after saying this.  “Of course, those people are quite... enigmatic.  There might even be a reason for withholding them, good or bad.”

“Well, it’s a strange situation we all find ourselves in...  It’s hard to fully grasp it at first, so I’m not surprised that many don’t listen at first.  And I guess it’s even easier to do something reckless if it seems unreal.  It’s like lucid dreaming and then doing whatever you want because you know it’s not real.  Unfortunate, though.  There are few ways to keep people from being human.”

“I see, that does run into another dilemma...”  Lyra finds herself caught up in worrying about Cataclysm with them.  “We need to become stronger, but there’s not many ways to do such a thing other than running out into the Veil, and that’s quite a risk...”

She wouldn’t object to doing such a thing, honestly... individually, with the full knowledge that she risks injury or death, anyways.  Having someone else do the same thing would weigh on her conscience.  But Togami as a leader seems to value safety over risks, so she doesn’t mention this to them.  Besides, she acknowledges his point about dying.  That wouldn’t help anybody.

“Hmm, these are all complicated matters... I must say that I admire your dedication.  I’m not so sure that I would take charge as you have.”  She might have misjudged them at the beginning, but she doesn’t mention that part either.  “Oh, is this the shop?”

“To be honest, I can’t rightly guess what’s going on their heads - I may be a reliable leader, but a mind-reader I am most assuredly not. Some of them may see my warnings as just wild tales, or a joke, or they may deliberately be going there in blind cockiness of their own ‘powers’, not knowing they had those taken away for the sake of a Persona. Honestly…a bit of common sense and thinking before acting would do so many here a load of good.” 

A long sigh, then, before they tapped at the sides of their glasses in thought. “Due to the fact many here do not have strong enough Personas to organize a lengthy exploration, this has not been done: many have Persona that have only just awakened and have very few powers, or haven’t awakened at all. I would like to investigate it once I know those I watch over can defend themselves, however - you hold a valid point on musing it could be connected to our overall goal.”

That musing being said: they couldn’t help but give a grim nod at the notion they would undoubtedly find out the reason they’d signed the contract to defend worlds sooner or later.

“Indeed, which hardly bodes well for how reckless half of the folk in the city are. It’s all well and good to try and get stronger Persona…but what’s the point if you die doing it? We won’t be any use to the contractors that way.” 

A very valid point, as the walk neared closer to the shops.

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“I, ummm... thank you,” Lyra says.  This boy seems unfazed despite being right at the edge of the Veil with her.  No question as to what she was doing here?  He was either too oblivious, too trusting, or too polite.  Or some combination of the three.

“Oh, my tarot cards... I dropped this?”  The nonexistent god of fate was laughing at her right now.  Any ordinary tarot enthusiast would be scrambling to check the end cards for a sign.  But she had something more important to do... which would be to deal with this guy now.

Lyra searches for an excuse... and finds one, gurgling behind her on the snow.  A single Shadow oozes its way towards the two of them, hands reaching out.  She jumps back and shouts a warning to the boy with her.

“Hey, behind us!  A Shadow, huh...”

Gasping to catch his breath, Yu managed to finally catch up to the oddly dressed girl. His body nearly buckled over when he stopped in front of her, a deck of cards in his hand.

“You… dropped this,” He huffed, extending his arm out as he presented the small deck of cards that the girl had misplaced. Narukami was glad he was able to return her item, smiling while doing so.

“Here you go,” He said, though he wondered just why she had come all the way out here, if she was just going to teeter at the edge of the Veil like this.

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“Well...”  Lyra’s focus remains on the unbelievably rude boy in front of her, but she can’t help but notice the Shadows squirming around in the pit.  It only serves to remind her of her self-appointed mission.  A mission someone is impeding at the moment.

“Well, first of all, how improper, grabbing my skirt like that!  If you were older, I would complain about sexual harassment.”  She indignantly smooths it out, wiping off the oils and sweat the boy could possibly have all over his hands.  Maybe she shouldn’t have said the words ‘sexual harassment’ to a young boy.  She could feel regret later, when there was time for that sort of thing.

“Secondly, this is my weapon.”  Lyra waves the parasol in his face.  “No, it’s not terribly effective, but that’s what Personas are for.  I don’t need a blade to be effective.  I’m quite good at magic, I’ll have you know.  Hey, what are you laughing for?!”

She notices the Shadow a little too late, grabbing at the boy’s ankles, and her instincts kick in; she grabs the boy’s wrists and pulls—

But her weight and strength are far from sufficient, and she goes tumbling over the side, holding the boy’s hands.

Her voice, which rang with defensive inflections both confused and slightly irritated him. Claus blinks, hand steady on her skirts. It occurs to him that she may want him to let go of them, but something inside him steadfastly argued to hold on. He wonders why, but decidedly listens to the latter suggestion. His fingers curl more tightly. “…really?” it’s obvious he’s more focused on the garment than making eye contact, but he’s at least listening to what she has to say. Just below, Shadows are gathering in anticipatory fervor. Their slimy digits claw at the ledge, and every moment that passes sees the growth of their influence. Though he’d prefer to pay them no mind, it’s hard not to notice. “How do you fight?” he’s looking for potential weapons now, finally letting go of the skirt in favor of gripping blade hilt at his waist. Just where was she hiding them…? Or, like some, were they the products of some invisible force? Behind bleak, partially bloodshot eyes he’s imagining her now blowing fire like a dragon. It’s amusing enough, and causes his mouth to crack just a fraction. Not quite the time and place to be messing around, but then Claus never really paid much attention to his surroundings unless it suited him. He’s very aware of the inky black weight inching over his foot, instinctively kicking it aside. Unfortunately, there was little deterring it.

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“Excuse me?”  Lyra backs up and turns to the boy who stopped her.  Her annoyance is two-fold; first, she was just about to go dive in the portal, and second, did this boy insult her fashion sense?!  And grab her skirt, at that!  Perhaps she should test her parasol.

“I can fight perfectly fine in this, thank you very much!”  She huffs.  “This outfit is, in fact, not cumbersome in the slightest; it’s quite comfortable.  The flare of the skirt may even facilitate movement more than pants.”  She pauses before pants as if it’s a curse word.  Anyways, it’s not like wearing a t-shirt would protect me any better.”

With words tangled in his throat, Claus doesn’t come at the girl with an immediate retort. Instead he’s grabbing at her skirts, enough to force a stop–or at the very least make his presence known. The texture of the fabric doesn’t feel like very much between metal fingers, but his imagination is reliable enough. “How are you gonna fight anything dressed like this?” it’s blunt, it’s mildly rude, but he’s so detached as he says it that one wonders if Claus even knew he might offend. He ignores demons that give him the evil eye, their fingers twitching to shove them in; he’s still caught on puzzlement of how this girl didn’t trip over her own feet.

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“Finally!  I was getting tired of waiting.  Clear the way—don’t bother tossing me in, I’m going anyways.  We’ll see if the enemies in there compare to the kind of competition I’m used to.”

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“I see, I see.”  Certainly, for a person who thinks themselves in a position of power (real or otherwise), such a thing would weigh heavily on them.  To be honest, Lyra would feel a duty to stop or at least aid anyone rushing out to the Veil herself.  “That’s quite a few people who would risk their lives, though.  Do most think it’s a joke until they get there themselves, or do they go to acquire their Persona despite the risk of death?”

“Interesting... If not for the demons, I guess we would be completely stuck out here.”  Such was the Velvet Room’s plan, she supposes.  “Have there been any attempts to search the Veil in parties?  If it’s full of Shadows, it might be connected somehow to our supposed goal here.”

Togami had mentioned that the deeper one went, the more dangerous Shadows became; she thinks it safe to assume that a few groups have poked around.  There are likely few willing to risk their lives if no immediate threat is present, even when summoned for the purpose of ‘saving worlds’.

“Regardless, we’re amassing a large force, it seems... And I doubt that our relatively peaceful way of life will remain much longer.  I guess we’ll learn what the Velvet Room group meant sooner or later.”

She feels a little guilty about badgering Togami with questions; real leader or not, they must have better things to do.  They’re coming up on a few new buildings.  Perhaps one of these is the textile shop.

Nodding in confirmation to the other’s initial question, the impostor muses: “Indeed: though I must admit too many people here seem to think testing my patience with risking their lives in dangerous scenarios is amusing, when it’s clearly not. I might be a powerful and dependable leader, but…such reckless behavior is concerning.” It really frustrates the leader, yet they don’t show it - merely looking as if they are a rich and powerful person mentioning a minor annoyance.

The topic of conversation is shifted, however, upon mentioning of the Veil, however. “When you approach the edges of the town, one will come across a sliver, snow-filled blizzard that covers the edges. This area is known as the Veil - and inside it are dangerous Shadows - monsters that no normal power or attack can possibly harm. If you have not unlocked your Persona, I highly suggest against going there: I’ve got a hard enough job shooing unprepared folk away from there arlready, thank you very much. Even with a Persona, though…the thick fog makes it impossible to navigate unless you have a Persona who can do such things, and the shadows often travel in groups, making it impossible to explore alone. Not only that, the deeper one goes, the more dangerous enemies appear.” 

It got a bit of a long explanation, but they loathed not giving enough cautionary information. The more they told about the Veil’s dangers, the less likely a newbie would hopefully be to go there and get into trouble. They wanted to be a good leader, and guide and protect everyone they could. “Hm, well. Feel free to share anything that happens to be on your mind. As the great Byakuya Togami, I will ensure to consider every inquiry seriously.”

Pausing to think at the next two questions, they then answered. “Not a particularly ‘huge’ amount, but a good number of people are here: keep in mind I wander the area constantly, so I cannot keep track of the specific number, and it often grows quickly each day. As for saving worlds…well. I would assume those shadows are the danger, yet there is no further information on the subject…and finding any has been hard, even for a great leader as I.”

A sigh, before they continue to  focus on leading the way.

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“It’s really cold...”  Lyra mumbles as she rubs her ears.  She’d anticipated this, and it’s not as if she hasn’t dressed accordingly; thanks to her distinctive style of lolita fashion, she’s well-equipped to stave off the cold.  Minus her ears.  But it was still ridiculously cold.

She’s reached the edge of the Veil now, and it’s as far as she’s willing to go; she’s not idiot enough to run in any further without backup.  She’ll get attacked by some of these ‘Shadows' on the fringe, she’ll dodge around until she acquires her Persona, and then she’ll flee before anything else happens.  That was the plan; if anything goes wrong she can always tweak it a little.  Right?

Unfortunately, getting tailed was not the plan.  Lyra looks behind to see someone behind her; whether he’s been following her since the beginning or just happened to be in the area is a mystery.  She wasn’t finished thinking of an excuse!

“Who’re you?” she starts with, turning around just as a black form starts trudging towards her.

Having such a peaceful stroll on a grey, cloudy day such as this was always pleasantly relaxing. Narukami was still getting used to all the different neighborhoods and streets in this new town, after all, it’s best to know where everything is in such a chaotic situation.

“Eh?”

Just as Yu was passing the corner, an unfamiliar girl strut by in front of him, obviously in a hurry. Watching her run off, it appeared that her destination was out in the Veil - where only other adventuring persona users are supposedly challenged to go.

What’s this?

Narukami bent down to pick up a deck of cards. That girl must have been in such a hurry that she hadn’t noticed this fall off of her person. Well, someone needs to return this.

“Excuse me, Miss! You’ve dropped this!” He shouted, though the girl already seemed to be well out of earshot. Yu decided to chase after her, hoping to catch up before she had already passed through to the other side.

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starter for @nobodytoucheshispreciousnanako

Cataclysm is a strange place, Lyra has learned.  Different from her home world--but not always in a bad way.  She’s spent the majority of the past weeks observing the other residents, aiming to gather information on their purported objectives, as well as possible reasons why they in particular were chosen.

Well, her search had turned up mostly empty, and the feeling of being unable to summon magic was beginning to bother her.  She felt a little bad about this--many of the people she met had their hands full keeping beginners away from the Veil, and now she was about to be one of them.  But she had faith in her ability; she did train rigorously for the military (which mostly meant she shouldn’t be pulling a stunt like this).  All in all, if nobody else got involved it would be a low-risk plan.

“I guess I should go now.  I’ll think about what I’ll say if I get caught later, I guess.  Which way again...?”

On her way, a small deck of cards drops out of her pocket, but her speed is such that she doesn’t notice.  Time is of the essence here.

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“I see...”  Well, Tsukasa seems nice, at least.  Lyra’s thankful when her somewhat awkward attempt at conversation is met with a response.  “it’s pretty late, I guess.  I’ve been out here a bit, so I wouldn’t know what time exactly, but it’s dark.”  And cold, though her style of dress protects her from most of it.

“Oh, it seems most of the people here have their Personas already.”  Or at least many of those she’s met, anyways.  “Is it strange when you get them?  I can’t really imagine having another entity in my brain.  Though I guess I’ll find out soon, anyways.”

“I never considered a career as a singer, but I took vocal lessons for years.  But I haven’t practiced for a few days since coming here.  I thought I’d get back to it after getting comfortable.  I don’t suppose you have any experience?”

“Thank you for the compliment, by the way.  It’s rather kind of you.”

Tsukasa shuffles in place, idly kicking at the dirt and branches beneath his feet. He almost feels…nervous, or like he should leave and continue minding his own business, but that would be terribly offensive to someone making an attempt at being friendly. 

“I didn’t expect anyone besides me would be out here, either…” he admits, and when he glances up to her face, he quickly looks down again. 

“Um. My name is Tsukasa. It’s nice to meet you, too….um, I have my Persona, yeah…” He thinks of his “adventure” into the Veil, and how dangerously close to being a tragedy it might have been without his party member and their Personas. He shuffles a bit again, shifting his weight and passing his staff from one hand to the other as he glances up to Lyra again. 

“Hm…no, it’s alright…I was only taking a walk, I guess…and, you were singing, right?” He tries a smile, not wanting to embarrass Lyra about it. “It sounded nice.” 

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Despite her lacking height, Lyra’s legs are long enough to keep up with Togami, at least.  She matches his strides, listening closely to his words.

“I see, so you’re a leader around here as well?”   A leader of a conglomerate—she could have guessed that.   Given this person’s ordinary disposition, she has to admit that she’s not entirely sure about them being a leader of the entire group here, but they seem to be at least somewhat reliable.  And right now it’s not as if she has a better choice, anyways.  If their sense of direction is worse than hers, she might as well just wander around and get a feeling for the Cataclysm.

“The Veil?  What’s that?”  She’s heard a little bit about it, but beyond a vague sense of a blizzard-y area, she’s not really sure.  If that’s all, she supposes it’s still quite dangerous, although she’s never heard of a place where a blizzard rages day and night.  Quite an inconvenience.

“My sincere thanks.  I admit that there are a few questions that have been bothering me.”  Lyra taps her temple twice.  “About how many people are here?  And do we have any ideas on what the ‘saving worlds’ thing means?”

Ah dear, it seems evident their attempt of humor didn’t go over too well from the brief look on the other’s face. Despite the impostor’s secret fondness for some jokes, they supposed with the serious and haughty mask of Togami they had to uphold - it didn’t exactly fit. Couldn’t blame a person for trying, anyway. At very least, the stranger shows patience to not comment on the matter, and keeping her cool. Consider they, the impostor, a little impressed. 

With the matter of leading the way decided, in other thoughts, a firm nod is given by the leader, before they start strolling towards the location. Though they’re normally very quick, they’ll keep a normal pace - brisk, but not too fast - so as to ensure the other doesn’t get left behind. It wouldn’t do at all to have her lost in a strange area of the place she did not know well, after all.

“No need to worry about thanks. As the leader in charge of the group here, it is my duty to guide you all as best I can, for that is the job a leader must do.” Even if they really like being thanked deep down, they must maintain the disguise, and can’t let the other know. “Me? I am the leader of the Togami conglomerate - Byakuya Togami - or rather, I was, before I got dragged into this mess. Now, I make use of my skills by leading new folk as yourself and ensuring nobody enters the dangerous Veil alone as best I can. Hm - It is pleasant to meet you, as well: but what matters here is ensuring you get the proper and appropriate help, no? My grandiose speeches can wait.”

…Even if they knew the real Togami wouldn’t be so kind as that, they felt it was an important quality of a leader, to be understanding like that. So they would stick to that and cover it up with the Togami aloofness afterward like they had been doing.

“More importantly, however - just how new here are you? If you’ve just gotten here, I will have even more interesting facts to share - I’m in a good mood today, despite the interruptions. So feel free to ask anything that comes to mind.”

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“Why did that earthquake have to happen so early in the morning?  I was sleeping!”

“...Though, I am curious as to what it was or what it did.”

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starter for @gentlysweeps

“Huh?”  Some sort of familiar object catches Lyra’s eye as she passes by, originally intending to retreat to her room and think over her next moves.  It’s wooden, and she can’t tell much else.  She steps forward to squint at some sort of protruding section—

“...A guitar?”  An acoustic one, probably, although anything could happen in a world like this.  “Who would leave this out here?”

She’d never claim to be much good at any instrument that isn’t her voice—she was pretty good at oboe when she’d picked that up in school, but there was too much else on her hands.  Still, oboes are made of wood too, and she knows for certain that leaving such a thing in the cold is a crime worthy of execution.

“Well, it’s mine now, I guess.  Maybe I should bring it back with me.”  Lyra has to hop to drag it down without scratching the wood.  It’s in good condition, too, as far as she can tell.  Other than the fact that it’s now grossly out of tune, anyways.  But that could be fixed.

She tries strumming out a simple chord and winces.  “Wow, that’s almost another chord entirely.”  Oh well.  She can’t play guitar at all, but what else is a girl supposed to do around here when she’s bored?

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✦

a guilty pleasure

“I... I like reading sappy shoujo manga sometimes.  Just to remind myself of my unwavering faith in humanity.”

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19 for character flaws!

What might tempt them to go against their own moral code?

“If it were for the sake of the collective, there’s not much I wouldn’t do.  I’d feel bad if I cheated someone out of something, but if I thought it benefited an entire community, I suppose I’d do it.  Same story with my siblings.  I suppose that it would be hard to motivate me to do something for personal reasons.  Maybe... if you offered me a lifetime supply of ice cream sandwiches?”

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✂

“When I was thirteen, an old moneyed rich girl with beautiful long hair and her friends kept harassing my siblings and I.  My family also comes from old money, but we were too equally matched to publicly defame them.  So I snuck into their house one night—it was hell getting past the security, but believe me I had some experience already—and I took a pair of scissors and chopped her hair short.  Nobody ever found out.  She was wearing a wig for weeks.  It was an awful thing to do and completely hilarious.”

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My muse cannot lie ! Send :

( feel free specify a context for each symbol )

💓  - And a name to ask if they would start a relationship with them. ⇕ - And a name to ask if they would sleep with them. ✮- And a name to hear their real feelings for them.< ☠ - And a name/ topic to hear what they hate the most about it/them. ✂-  For  one of the wrost mischief they did. ₪ -  For a kink. 回 - For a phobia they have. ✦ - For a guilty pleasure. ◎  - Next to any question to have it answered sincerely, no matter how personal or embarassing.