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Winter Returns To the Earth; [Archangels]
Topic Started: Feb 25 2014, 08:37 PM (468 Views)
Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
She had called a meeting. Albeit, had she expected any of them to show up? Did she deserve to be their leader? The Headquarters was quiet, only the low hum of the lights in the small room she called their meeting room could be heard. She sat still wearing the helmet from before. It had caused her to be called Kamen Rider-san by that one girl.

Machi Kijimuta. Weren't the Kijimutas regulars to that stupid party she was forced to attend? A big communications company. Chances are her phone she was carrying now had some sort of connection back to them in some way. But that wasn't the point. That wasn't why she was gathering everyone. Had she expected them all to rush as soon as possible? No, she wasn't worth that. She had abandoned them.

"Who are you..?" Eyes looked up to see Anael, still wearing her own helmet.

"The Angel of Joy herself. It is a pleasure to see you again Anael. Or should I say, Rika." Her voice was undisguised, the girl's reaction a sign of that.

"Alex? You're back?" The girl removed her helmet, her changed appearance enough to deter those who didn't know her as well as her Archangels did.

"Indeed I am. I am waiting for the others to arrive. I am saddened by what I heard from Takeo. But even now, he is still our brother. That part of our group never ends. It is a bond you are taken into for life."

The girl nodded, taking her place at the table, making sure to leave the spots beside her leader open for those who liked to sit by her side. A thought crossed her mind, how brazenly she strides back, only for her to instantly call her leader. Would she have to earn that right?

Rika kept her thoughts to herself, for the most part.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo Charinko was wearing the Archangel uniform less and less these days. Part of it was simply the way things seemed to happen. She was put out of commission by a concussion that she had to let heal the natural way, for example--damn that fucking asshole street cop!--or Kinzaki had been kidnapped and Kyo herself had opted to spend time with Isoroku at the estate in order to guard the heiress's father just in case. But the truth of it was that Kyo's heart wasn't quite in the vigilante part of all this without Aleksandria there.

Aleksandria was the only reason she had put on this stupid costume to begin with.

The green-haired girl, now in the garb of Raziel, made her way across the rooftops as always and slipped into the warehouse they called headquarters. It was all familiar to her now; she barely noticed the stasis device in the corner, an odd reminder of what Aleksandria had once been, at the same time an standby device for the most desperate of medical emergencies. She barely noticed the supply lockers, and she barely noticed the door she opened to reach the meeting room.

She reached up and pulled her helmet off the moment she entered; there was no one among the Archangels who didn't know her face, so keeping the helmet on was just a formality. Kyo despised formalities.

Her expression was a warm grin, but the face beneath the helmet might have been an underline to just how long Aleksandria had been gone--long enough for shit to happen, certainly. Kyo's eyes were both yellow, rather than just the one, indicating that at some point Kyo had lost and regrown the other. She wore a black-and-purple headband embroidered diamond-shapes and almost-invisible butterflies across her upper forehead, keeping her bangs out of both eyes so that they instead framed her face. Her hair was cut neater than it had been before, still longer on the lefthand side but now appearing distinctly less boyish and markedly more feminine.

"I'm glad you're back, Aleks," was the first thing she said, as she hurried over to one of the seats at Aleksandria's side. "...I'm sorry t' say, but Kira won't be able t' make it today. She's been wearin' herself super-thin lately. I kinda had t' twist her arm t' get her t' take some time off. Jeez..."

The green-haired girl rolled her eyes and set the helmet-mask down on the table in front of her, flicked her wrist, and summoned her butterfly mask. "This thing," she said in a sour voice, holding up her new mask as she sat down, "don't like me wearin' anything on top of it. Fucking refuses t' bend or anythin'. Won't be able t' use it under the Archangel mask. Don't really like that handicap much."

Was that really it? Or was her mask's refusal to be worn underneath any other mask indicative of something deeper? Ugh, Persona stuff was annoying. Kyo felt like she might just be jumping at symbolism shadows at this point.

She turned her eyes to Anael, and offered the girl a wave. "Yo, Rika. What's up? Besides the sky and our leader bein' back, I mean." Gregarious as she was, Kyo liked to maintain a friendly relationship with all of the Archangels whenever she could. She never felt like she was able to connect with any of them in a significant way though, with the exception of Iemoto, and even that had taken longer than it should have done...
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GKG
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when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
It wouldn't take much longer for Iemoto to arrive. His mother's new condition had led him to skip on his Archangel duties once or twice (okay... perhaps more than that. But still, it hadn't been often at all), but this meeting was too important to skip: so he'd put on his gear, used his ice powers to travel around the rooftops and the streets, and finally arrived at their headquarters. Been some time since he'd last headed there: finding the way back to the headquarters wasn't hard by any stretch of the mind, anyway.

Just like Kyo, he pulled off his helmet when he arrived: unlike Kyo, his face hadn't changed that much, mostly because he'd already done the whole "change your various body parts' colors" thing before it was cool and hadn't felt the need to prove himself in that manner. He did look a little more well-rested than usual, though, and quite content at the sight of his recently-returned leader, however. "Hey ! Nice to see ya back." he said as he sat in one of the chairs close to the Russian girl.

He gave the other Archangels present a quick nod along with an amiable grin - he wasn't as naturally gregarious or good at dealing with people as Kyo, but at least tried to maintain healthy relationships with the rest of his companions. He'd been talking about a doing a sushi night as of late - he still had to put a precise day on the event, but now that Aleksandria was back, perhaps that would speed up things...

...Did Aleksandria even know of his newfound passion for sushi-making ? No, she probably didn't. Well, if he had the occasion to talk about it during the conversation, he would.
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria frowned somewhat. "A shame, but I cannot demand her attention. I am... glad she keeps busy." There was a hint of sadness to her tone, but ultimately she understood that Aleksandria never came first. To assume as much would be to be crawling back into the shadow she worked so hard to get herself free of. No. She was a different woman now, a strong woman. A conflicting thought brewed in her mind, but she buried it.

"Sometimes we must think of ourselves first. It is fine Kyo, there is nothing I will say here that I will not report to her later." When she mentioned the mask and tried to bend it, the girl summoned her own, a halo that she placed on the table. There was a quality to gold, but this was much lighter. Like it was truly divine. "Thankfully, I do not have this issue. Unfortunately, it makes me very easy to spot in a crowd of people."

Anael smiled slightly. "I've been keeping busy myself. My grandmother fell ill and I've been looking after her." She opened up quicker to these people than anyone she could call a 'friend'. Perhaps that was the effect of a bond between comrades? The girl had no idea how to fathom it. A part of her felt rage at how easily she was accepted as the leader. They were abandoned. It was a splinter that dug into her heart.

She didn't like being abandoned.

As Iemoto arrived Aleksandria gave a smile. "The last we spoke, you were trying to find your own way. As you can see... I found my answer." She said nothing more on the front, allowing the boy to sit before beginning.

"Not before me boss." A large heavyset man dragged another boy behind him as they took the other chairs. The empty chairs just reminded her of her own incompetence. Had she been able to stop those people, maybe Takeo would be in that chair. Had she been here to assist her friend, maybe Kira would be in the other chair.

It was a constant reminder of her own failures as a person. Claim she has changed, but run straight back to Russia at earliest convenience. Both times leaving people in the dust. It seemed not even ascension could stem the flow of horrible thoughts. The worst part was she was beginning to accept them.

"Ah. Tachimukai and Michael." The older boy gave a grin while the masked boy nodded slowly. Now that they were all here they could begin.

"...Currently, I know of the Black Hoods. I know nothing more than what I was able to glean from Toru Mutou, when I ran into him following my arrival." Everything else in that sentence was erased. She didn't meet Kyo's mother. She didn't meet Nishiyo Sadako and plan to give her freedom. Something she clearly didn't deserve.

None of these things happened. There was still things she could not even tell her closest allies. Things she could not even tell her closest friends. "Other than that, I'd like to make a point, one that I must confess, is my own fault. Our actions, those of peaceful yet forceful, have done nothing to stem the flow. We have been able to narrow the wound somewhat, but our enemies only began to hide in the same shadows we called our home."

Aleksandria sighed. "I... feel as if I have failed you and for that, you have my deepest apologies."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo sighed a bit and lowered her head when she heard Rika's grandmother was sick. She knew it must be stressful, but ailing grandparents weren't something Kyo had experience with. She didn't have any on her mother's side, not really--she'd always wondered why the "great grandparents" on her mother's side never seemed to care much about Kyo or her mother, now she knew of course, Eri was adopted, she wasn't a granddaughter. Eri's own parents were affectionate to Eri but had always seemed distant toward Kyo, probably for a similar reason. Kyo had thought it was because they, too, thought she was inadequate, or later, delinquent. No, they just didn't feel the instinctual need to cling to a grandchild that wasn't theirs.

Realizing this at such a random moment was off-putting. Kyo gleefully leapt upon the distraction of Iemoto's arrival and those of the other Archangels to shut those thoughts down.

When Aleksandria began speaking, Kyo couldn't help a troubled frown at the mention of Toru Motou. The man who she'd been so paranoid over for the sake of Suzume and Nana was also one of Aleksandria's more reliable allies, a paradox that baffled Kyo to no end. Why favor one while being so aggressive toward the others? It made no sense at all to Kyo.

The voicing of a doubt Kyo herself had been feeling, though, that brought her back to the topic at hand.

"I'm kinda... thinkin' along the same lines, y'know?" she said, looking around the table with an almost apologetic half-smile on her face. "It's part o' what I was thinkin' when I proposed my little project on Bedlam the other week, right before exams. But, um... I've given it a bit of a think, and, and I don't think we're the only factor there. If Fyodor tech's ruled out, that'd logically mean they have a sensor-type on their side, yeah? But somethin' about that don't sit right, either. We ain't seen any strange parties tryin' t' do anything about the ruins yet. If they had a user on their side, they'd know about 'em, right? So I don't think they do. Which I think means they don't have a user on their side at all, so--"

She broke off, and gave a guilty smile in Aleksandria's direction.

"Ah! Uh, sorry--how much exactly did Shoeshine tell ya about that?" she asked sheepishly, scratching at the side of her head where the hairband met the back of her ears. "I mean, prolly that they know how t' find our weaknesses and exploit 'em, right? 'Cause that's the really weird part I can't wrap my head around."
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GKG
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when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
Iemoto gave a small nod when Aleksandria mentioned him trying to find his own way. He summoned his own mask - bloodied on one half, frozen on the other - and put it on the table like the others. "Yeah, I think I'm... pretty close to finding it for good, in fact." He hadn't told them about his mother's new condition yet - he wanted to make sure everything had been taken care of before he did, but it was unlikely that his comrades hadn't noticed his sunnier behavior as of late.

He gave the two arriving comrades a nod of the head, and listened on to the conversation. He didn't exactly have Kyo's network of people to get information from, which... wasn't exactly something he was proud of. He was of course concerned about the Black Hoods, and the way they managed to know the weaknesses of their targets remained a mystery - he had his theories about that, though, probably like every single person in this room.

The Black Hoods having someone with analysis powers on their side was the most likely answer - it wasn't particularly hard to imagine that happening. Most Black Hoods probably weren't so hell-bent on eliminating them as to refuse the aid of someone who'd make it so much easier to locate their targets... Maybe they even had managed to log onto Bedlam.

"Well, that's kinda how it has to happen. I mean, not much else we can do at the moment than react to the attacks and try to figure out who they are exactly." he stated, shrugging his shoulders - the Black Hoods acted, and they couldn't do much more than react. if only it'd been the other way around...
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
The Russian listened intently. "I saw your project Kyo-san, I feel that you might be right. If this city is ever going to improve, our methods will not be the ones to do it. If Nagashima wants the peace it deserves, it cannot be gained in the shadows. I thought this myself during my absence. But... that is not a question we need to deal with now. For the moment, we need to thwart these Black Hoods."

Aleksandria tapped her mask against the table. "I know they can use our weaknesses against us. Which stands to reason they at least have one persona user with them. One obsessed with our eradication, my guess. Perhaps he was a part of the Ruwashi Disaster? He, or she. I apologise." Iemoto's point was indeed a good one.

"All we can do for now is fight them. When they are gone, that is when we have to take matters as they are and change. But know this, despite what I have said, you are still my family. Even if this group disbands, so that others can provide light to the darkness, you are still those I trust the most. I love each and every one of you like siblings." She shook her head slightly. "I only wish I had been around to maybe prevent some of these things."

Then, she did something very unlike Aleksandria. "But that is the past. We must focus on the future."
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
"But that's what I'm sayin', I don't think there is a user with 'em. I mean it seems like there's only two options, but ain't there another company out there that's been fuckin' around with this shit?" Kyo asked, sounding a bit feeble and altogether uncomfortable with the idea even as she voiced it. "I mean, what if it's got somethin' t' do with, well..."

She trailed off, and couldn't help sending a glance through the warehouse wall, in the direction of the woodlands, where the most oft-used ruins entrances were. It seemed like grasping at straws, though. Maybe there was a connection to that unknown organization, maybe there wasn't. There wasn't any reason to suppose it might be apart from it being an option on the list that hadn't been proposed yet. And in all honest, apart from the Black Hoods showing no sign of interest in the ruins so far, there was no reason to assume it wasn't a Persona-user with scanning magic.

She looked back to Aleksandria. "I agree, though. About needin' t' take 'em down. I guess that don't change much no matter what the answer t' their tactics is. But I'm not sure how t' do that. Most I can think is... set up an ambush with a Persona-user who's well-known enough they'd attract the hood's attention as bait!"

Kyo's eyes went deadpan, and she raised her hand.

"...Well, they're bound t' come after me sometime anyway," she said flatly. "Which is why I've been usin' the rooftops a lot more often lately. But, but--even that's a problem. 'Cause the only way t' get a drop on 'em is t' use people they can't detect, and that means non-users. Maybe users who're in their post-Armored-Form week, but we don't know if their scanning power's weak enough they wouldn't be able t' sense the Persona when it's like that. From what I can tell, weaker scanners like Masumi can't, but the big-time ones like Kumori Yatsu can."

And if it's some kind of scanning device, who knows if it even plays by the same rules?

Kyo lowered her hand and sighed. "I can't come up with a better plan than that. The Hoods don't make a ruckus and when they attack someone, they do it all stealthy-like. We can't run around rooftops and wait for some disturbance t' happen. Our game needs t' seriously change, but damned if I know how."

Kyo paused.

"There's another thing..." she muttered. "Kaede's last prediction thread, it said they'd eventually find their way onta Bedlam. I dunno if they've done it yet or not, but when they do--we gotta take measures t' make sure they can't abuse it." She paused. "But that's another thing. That prophecy implies they didn't already have access. Which implies they might not even've been inside the ruins yet. It's another thing that feels off t'me, that's all."
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GKG
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when ur team wipes but ur ult is at 15%
Iemoto drummed the fingers of his left hand on the table, and shrugged his shoulders. "The truth is that we got no idea. I guess we could probably learn interesting things if we caught one of them and subjected him to some Charm magic to massage their mind a bit, but, well, there's always the possibility of them having planned for that." Charm magic - probably more effective than any kind of torture, because it made the target actually lean to your side for a few moments.

That plugged itself quite well to Kyo's plan, but there was another problem with it. "The plan's basis is sound, but I'm not sure the Hoods would automatically go for well-known Persona Users. I mean, these are pretty likely to be experienced and good at fighting stuff and using their powers, right ? If I was in their place, I'd first go for the weakest ones. Wait until I get experienced and confident enough myself. Those not strong enough to pose a big threat and effectively fight back... We musn't write off the possibility of them wising up."

He thought for a few seconds more, drumming his fingers in rythm. "We have to bait them into attacking, while also making sure we don't give the impression of being too much of a threat in order not to scare them away. I think the best method would be to keep a close, but discreet watch on weaker Users. My best guess is that the next time the Black Hoods identify a weak User, they'll try to attack them next."

The prospect of them logging onto Bedlam was indeed quite frightening. "Well, if that comes true, we'll have to be extra careful. Should be alright as long as we keep the important stuff in PM conversations, but, well, musn't ignore the possibility of them obtaining someone else's ID."
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Dante
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WHERE THE FUCK IS MARIO
Aleksandria tapped her fingers against the table, deliberating the information. "I cannot truly tell you if Fyodor Industries were the only group with an interest in Persona Users. I wish I could, but our work was suspect of corporate espionage. They could have stolen plans for a scanning device, or perhaps built one based on our tech."

A shrug. "Or simply created it all by themselves." As she volunteered herself the Russian shook her head slowly. "No, I feel that if one of us stood as bait, they would not take it. They wouldn't attack users of our level. Probably out of fear. The rats can only bite the ankles of those who stand low enough. A rather poor analogy, but you get my point." Sbe wondered. Was there a scanner? Was there a device? Were the black hoods really persona users that simply swore off their powers?

The answer was somewhere and she would find it. "We cannot hide in the shadows and simply wait. The game has changed and we must adapt to fit these changes. But it cannot happen until we can find a solid lead on these Black Hoods. Perhaps capturing one would lead to a possible advantage. But that would be an action that could bring aggression down on you all. How much would they fight to retrieve an ally?"

She bit her lip. "Invade Bedlam? We do not share detailed information there.. except through PMs, which can be traced..." Her voice trailed off. "At least they are not in a moderation position. Incidentally... we need to do something... all I can think of is trailing the newer users and seeing what happens. But that is a extensive use of manpower that I would not want to subject you all to until I was sure it was the only option."

She leaned back. "I honestly miss the times where all we had to do was fire some blanks into a crowd and stop the lynchmobs."
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