Player Event: "Imbalance" [OPEN]

[songbird_slayer]

Who: Everyone! Even the newcomers! What a time to jump in, huh?
Which: OPEN Dreamscape
What: On the night of the 10th a strange dreamscape appears, dividing some dreamers into two, each bearing just half of themselves... how will they pull themselves together?
Warnings: Probably a lot. I trust you fine people to please mark your content appropriately should your threads make mention of anything triggering. I'm watching you.


Quiet nights never seem to stay quiet. It began with the slightest flicker within the crystal lanterns, a ripple, perhaps the sound of coins clinking together.

Then, with a distant scream, there was a torrent of blue and orange flame. It's hot but it doesn't burn, swirling and dancing with the frenzy of a desperate dancer. It blinds to familiar surroundings, twin colors that seemingly never end...




Until one's feet touches sand-dusted stone and marble. The air is hot and arid, ripe with burning kindling in myriad torches that line walkways. The flames rhythmically sway, catching the glimmer of golden archways and decor that embed the city... palace...? That lay before you.

Something is wrong. Really wrong. Something in you feels... different. Blank. But before you can comprehend it much further, something is running down the pathway in the distance to enter the palace like the devil was on its heels. That something looks just like you...

---

You pursue this weird other you... or, you don't. Perhaps you were drawn to the palace's splendor and decided to explore, maybe find some sweet treasure while you're here. Whatever the case, nothing about this place smells dusty or aged. It feels brand new... lined with statues and tapestries of what appeared to be great warriors, all humanoid and bearing twisted horns atop their heads and long, craggy tails covered in scales. But some of them have been altered in some way... some are missing their heads, and one or two "lucky" ones have simply had large claw marks ripped across their face. What would put claw marks in stone was anyone's guess.

Those who tire of the architecture may find some doors are unlocked. Yes, such a lavish place seems all too eager to lay itself bare for you, perhaps bearing a sparkly trinket or two to your liking. (Note: Unfortunately, any treasures obtained in the palace will only come back with you in the form of candies shaped as said jewels, crowns made of shortbread, tapestries spun from candy floss, etc. It's all food. Enjoy!)

---

Deeper and deeper you delve, either arms full of treasure or having bumped into friends who don't exactly act like your friends normally would, you find more motifs of the warriors, more intact the further you head through this weird city-palace. Near the center are statues depicting two... figures... each holding a pair of scales.

Yet no matter how much you wait and watch them, the scales continue to sway from one side to the other. There's nothing on their respective plates, however... what could be throwing them off?

If you place anything on the plates and mend the swaying scales, you are given a single shard of a strange crystal rife with dreamotion energy with a sense of wholeness and connection. It shifts colors as you turn it this way and that in your hand. Maybe that'll help put some of these people back together if fighting or talking to them won't do it...



[ooc: Information and Plotting post is here for easy review. The shards are meant to simplify putting people back together if needed, but are the only thing that can be taken into the semi-waking world as a pretty bauble. Also, a reminder that this is optional. Enjoy!]

Comments

[feale]

She shook her head slightly in response to his words. "I know it's the truth, Akechi-san. What's happening to you now... it happened to me, too."

And that meant that the boy with his face was him, in every way that mattered. But she wouldn't say that, not when it seemed like his sanity was on a razor-thin edge.

"I'll help you find him. But... I have to ask, what do you plan to do with him when you do?"

[herewardbound]

The shadow's expression turned contemplative, for a moment. "Oh, I know what he'd like me to do. But I think that'd be rather pointless and sad. I would very much like to beat the shit out of him, though."

He fell into place by her side, though, the smile returning. "Still! I think apart from Joker, you're the member of the group I've spent the most time with. Which is a little funny, if you think about it, because neither of us were really being ourselves at all, through most of it."

[feale]

What he'd like Akechi to do? Violet frowned. The words he spoke were certainly true, to the point that she couldn't confidently say she knew what the other version of him wanted. Despite the amount of time they had spent together, neither of them was honest about who they were... at least until very recently.

She had to wonder, though, from his words alone: was that other part of him— the one this Shadow-like Akechi seemed to be chasing— a part of him that wanted to die? It seemed likely, and yet she didn't want to put words in his mouth. Instead, as they walked, she dropped her gaze, her tone thoughtful as she spoke:

"What is it that he wants you to do, Akechi-san? Because the truth is, I'd like to be able to spend more time with you as the two people we truly are, not the people we were pretending to be..."

[herewardbound]

"Kill him, probably!" It was said so casually, so thoughtlessly, with the tone of announcing one's dinner plans. "It'd make everything so simple, you see? Stop him thinking about things that he hates confronting about himself- flaws in his thinking, gaps in his reasoning you could drive a distressingly-feline minibus through-"

He laughed, for a moment, at the joke. "Already dead. Just a puppet. Meaningless, really. Easier to stop caring, stop trying, stop existing. Fucking coward. But you don't have to worry. I don't need to kill him, Sumire. And he can't even summon a Persona. It's sad, really. No more lies to cling to, no more hate to drive him forward, even survived the death he'd planned- at the Phantom Thieves' hands, no less! It's all, so... pathetic. It's like there's nothing left, and he's really just looking for a reason..."

He paused. "I've just realized, this is probably pretty upsetting to hear. Sorry about that. I'm-" he smiled, just a little bit- "-we're- not a very happy person. If you couldn't tell. But you... you people. You've seen us. Seen me. Warts and all, and here you are. I've never had friends, Sumire. Not before Ren, and not before all of you, as fucked up as that is. You wouldn't leave me behind, would you?"

[feale]

As Akechi responded to her question with the exact answer she'd somehow known was coming, she felt her heart sink. Despite knowing what it was going to be, she'd allowed herself to hope for something different, because she knew all too well how it felt, and it's a feeling she'd never wish on anyone— and perhaps that part of him would be surprised to know that he was included in that.

Her feelings toward him might have been complicated, but they were teammates after all; Violet thought to herself that there was even the potential for them to be friends, now that they had the chance.

"Um, it's okay. You don't have to apologize." Her smile was a little awkward, but genuine nonetheless. "I mean... yes, it's upsetting to hear, but not because—" She broke off, shaking her head for a moment, trying to find the words to say what was on her mind. "Honestly, I'm not a very happy person either." In fact, just like him, one of her two selves had been desperately seeking her own death before a kind stranger had helped put them back together. "But... I think we can learn to be.

So, no. I won't leave you behind."

And in fact, it was inspiration from the stranger's actions that informed the next of her own, as she reached out to offer him her hand.

"But if you want to look for him together, you have to know that I won't let you beat him up, either. Okay?"

[herewardbound]

Something in his expression faltered, amber-gold eyes suddenly uncertain, glancing between her hand and her face... before, hesitantly, taking it. "Ahah... I never... thought. That you would-"

He inhaled, rallied his nerves. "Anyway, you're being completely unreasonable. He's a serial killer! It's almost community service, and more than one internet forum has suggested that he has 'the world's most punchable face'."

[feale]

Admittedly, she wasn't sure the Shadow Akechi would be willing to take her hand, not even in the more-open state in which she had found him. And so she sighed a little when he accepted, her fingers curling around his as she smiled, walked alongside him— presumably in the direction of the other him.

Still, in response to his words, she could only shake her head.

"Just because someone has a punchable face doesn't mean we should punch them, right?" Was that Yoshizawa admitting that she found his face punchable too? No. (Maybe.) But also not the point. "He made a lot of mistakes, but... he also went through an awful lot of stuff. Punching him won't help him learn, Akechi-san. But it does sound like you can teach him?"

[herewardbound]

He cupped his chin. "A fair point, Sumire. I suppose I shouldn't punch him. However, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to insist, on the grounds that I want to."

Still... the fact she didn't want him to be hurt was somehow touching. "I'd like to think I can. Though I'm not... sure. I'm not sure of much, anymore." He stared down at his free hand, frowning. "I'm not a complete idiot, Sumire. I know what I am. Just a Shadow. The 'true self', in one sense- but in another... Robin Hood is just a sense of Justice I no longer believe in. The Detective Prince a pretty lie I put on for the world, to hide how much I hated it. Loki is nothing but hate, blind, stupid hate for my father, for the society that enabled him, for everything he encouraged me to do... for the malevolent god that gave me this power in the first place, the Black Mask just the face I put on as Shido's perfect little killing machine. And when that burned away everything I had, Hereward is all that's left. Nothing but spite and the willingness to kill myself just so Maruki couldn't do to me what he did to you."

Amber-gold eyes burned behind the mask, uncertain and... frightened. "What does it say about me that all my Personas are just responses to how other people see me? When you take away what others have made me to be... what's left, really? There has to be something, but I don't know."

[feale]

She should have been focused on the fact that he was insisting on punching the other version of himself, but the rest of his statement drew her attention elsewhere, making her frown.

...just so Maruki couldn't do to me what he did to you.

The words stung— but at the same time, she understood. How could she not, after everything she'd been through in this dreamscape? Forced to confront that nightmare all over again, the choice she made for herself was still the same one that she had in the real world, once again won with the guidance and trust of the companions she won along the way. What healing she could have found if she'd had a doctor who cared for her, not just for what she stood for in the grand scheme of his plans.

She was silent for a moment, and then she squeezed Akechi's hand in hers, shaking her head as her eyes met the golden ones behind his mask, her expression sad, but genuine and gentle.

"What's left is what you choose for it to be, Akechi-senpai. Just like all of you told me. And if you don't know who that is yet... that's okay, too. We'll figure it out together. Okay?"

[herewardbound]

"Together..." He laughed again, though the sound was mostly... melancholy. "I really do... wish, sometimes, that I'd met Joker just a little earlier... But I suppose you know better than anyone else would. All of... this. Is a part of me. It doesn't have to be who I will be, but it is who I am... Like it or not."

The Shadow seemed to steel himself a little. "I think I'd like to get moving. It's important that I find him."