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The Art of Information.; [Taira, Susaki.]
Topic Started: Mar 20 2017, 06:12 PM (383 Views)
Wagoo

Yet another busy day had come and gone.

Ren sighed, looking at the time on his phone. His parents wanted him home sharp, but he still had a lot of time after he concluded his business earlier that Sunday. That business was going to lead to some very bad or very good decisions, but still, it had been made. Nevertheless, Ren knew where he and his Persona stood, and they'd probably have different minds about it for the future. His path was clear: he was going into the Ruins again, whether he technically liked it or not, but at least he was going to be smart about it.

The right choice has been made. Why do you not celebrate with your family? This is an occasion that means much to us all.

This is not something to celebrate, Ren retorted towards his Persona.

But you'd be very, very wr- Aesop began, but Ren didn't give the Persona any chance to finish.

No. You're part of me, but you're a part of me that's my defense mechanism. Everything else? Most of it is extraneous. And Aesop, your values are extraneous. No, scratch that, they're terrible! You're not in some ancient society on the wrong end of the planet. You're in the modern world, and we react to things sane thanks to slowly learning lessons, even if we tend to repeat ourselves. What is it going to take to get you to get out of the mindset of the past, Aesop?! What!?

After Ren returned his hand to his pockets, he clenched his hands into fists, both of them down at their sides. He looked forward at the thing he'd stopped by to look at, but his face wasn't hatred. It was more desperation and panic. For what it was worth, the lack of bags under his eyes had at least shown some improvement. But it felt like nothing. Arguably, it felt like things had gotten worse. Taking a moment, he breathed deeply through his nose, and slowly, his almost temper tantrum lessened. Perhaps it had to do with the works of art in front of him. In Nagashima City Hall, a painter had been commissioned to do multiple works, all to show off inside City Hall. Though it was officially labeled a 'mural' it was more of a collection. Focusing on them managed to help Ren slowly calm himself.

... Pardon me. Aesop quietly said those words in Ren's head, but he sounded quite offended. Nevertheless, it was clear the facet of Ren's psyche was done for the moment. And so it came to pass that Ren stood there, in his normal out-of-school clothes, looking at the collection, and pondering the person who could both create art, lead the Users, and seem to be so... well, Ren didn't know for sure exactly what he'd heard about Kaede Susaki had made him settle on his current opinion of her, but ultimately, he just chalked it up to someone caring underneath their issues.
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

"You like them? I'm pretty proud of that one."

The voice would suddenly come from Ren's right, the owner having walked up while he was in thought and started pointing at the large canvas of an almost empty Matechi Street. The person who'd walked up was a fair bit shorter than Ren, and was dressed in a black beret, a white button up and black pants, and a pair of black combat boots, and it would be almost entirely impossible to guess the person's gender just from looking at them -- their voice had been right in that range of tone that it could go either way, and there were no obvious tells toward their sex in their appearance.

"Had to go out and take all of the reference photos myself. Thought someone was going to run me over before I got them all," Kaede said.

She seemed utterly unconcerned by Ren being there, staring at her artwork. As far as why she'd been there in the first place... it turned out city hall wanted some touch ups done. Apparently someone had gotten their hands on a canvas at one point and gotten fingerprints all over one corner of a piece (which had been removed from the wall, thankfully), so they wanted her to fix it before putting it back. Nice enough of them to let her know before she'd had to find out on her own, at least.
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Wagoo

Ren turned towards the newcomer, looking at... the person up and down. While he couldn't put his finger on the details of this person, at the least, this one seemed to know a lot about the works of art in front of the both of them. Ren's curiosity became evident, as the lingering sentiments of panic and desperation slowly washed away. In their place, a surge of inquisitiveness took over. "Why is it so empty?" Ren asked the artist. "I don't know if it's a shopping habit thing, trying to show what it looks like without all the people, or if it's... well, like that just cause."

After a moment, Ren blinked, and he appeared a tad embarrassed about himself. "Oh, wait, where are my manners? Ehm, Taira, Ren Taira." Ren turned the rest of his body to align with his head, facing the artist, and offering her a bow. "I'm just trying to pass by the day, and found myself... well, I found myself going here after reading about your mural online. You're Kaede Susa... ki... right?"

You could see the realization dawning on Ren's face as he understood who she was. Indeed, it would be 'she', if the information gathered from Bedlam lined up properly. Despite seeming so androgynous the only way to tell for sure was by feeling, Kaede Susaki is indeed a woman according to Bedlam- brilliant artist, Taiyoutono student, and far more importantly to Ren, a REALLY powerful User who at one time was in charge, but had given up power. "You are her... oh crap." The surprise in his voice was evident. Awe and fear were mixed in as well; awe at someone who could probably blow the whole building up, fear that someone so powerful was right next to him, and it took a few moments to recognize it!
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

So he was actually interested in it! It was always nice to see someone her age who was into the kind of art she did.

"I wanted to show a Matechi most people would never get to see," Kaede explained. "Kind of like... making the familiar unfamiliar. There's a term for that, but hell if I can remember it. That's actually the theme I worked with for all of my pieces."

She turned toward Ren as he introduced himself and gave a bow in return. Just as she was getting ready to introduce herself in turn, his expression changed.

She gave Ren a flat stare as he worked through his realization, not really sure what to make of the sudden change in tone. Especially when he had an "oh crap" reaction a few seconds later. She didn't know this guy at all, so hell if she knew what could have changed his response so quickly.

"Yes, I'm... Kaede Susaki," she said flatly. "Uh, can I help you?"
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Wagoo

"So, you were trying to... un-familiar it, I think?" Ren responded. "No, that's not the word... well, it's close enough." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand. "What would that word be?"... he asked aloud. Nobody responded, not even Aesop.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Ren was still flabbergasted by running into an important person in the issues below the city. For a few moments, thoughts best summarized as trying to figure out what to do ran through his head. Aesop continued to offer no counsel, remaining quiet. Just what was going on with that Persona?

But Ren did eventually recover, speaking up again. Though his face remained mixed with awe and dread, his tone included someone who clearly felt embarrassed. "Ah, forgive me, Susaki-san!" Ren quipped. "It's just that I'm well aware of your work, including the... under-ground scene. No need to, well, mask it in the slightest, no?" He let out an awkward sigh, running through his hints in his head at the same time he ran his left hand through his hair. "That, sounded a lot worse out loud than it did a second ago in my head."

What that word is.
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

"Oh, son of a..." Kaede let out a sigh and squeezed the spot between her eyes. That's what this was about. Persona stuff. Yeah, if all she'd heard about her was from that shit, she supposed she'd be a bit intimidated too.

"Yeah, I bet that did sound better in your head," she said, scowling. "Fuck it. I'm not discussing this in here. Come on."

She motioned for Ren to follow and started making tracks toward the entrance of city hall, grumbling to herself the whole while. She kept walking through the double doors and out to the road, stopping to wait in the shade of a short, ornamental tree near the sidewalk.
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Wagoo

Ren gulped as the potential weapon of mass destruction became cross with him. His feelings were worn on his sleeve, going by how he looked as if he were scanning a minefield for potential hazards, with the grimace of someone expecting the worst. Nevertheless, he willingly followed close behind the disaster artist, ignoring the questioning look coming from some bystanders.

Nevertheless, they both made it to the ornamental tree. Ren took a look around, seeing how much more public the place was, even eyeing a CCTV camera briefly. He then turned to speak to the person in question. "I, ah, take it that, um, this is not where you want to, eh, discuss things?" An apologetic expression graced Ren's face as he said this, clearly unsure if he should have or shouldn't have brought the Persona issue up.
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

She glanced up at the security camera at the same time Ren did, scowling at it before looking back down at him.

"It's not, but it's better than inside city hall. I dunno if you've noticed, but there's an echo in there," she said, and shook her head. "What we should really do if we're gonna discuss this shit is go somewhere people either can't overhear, or won't think twice if they do. So take your pick: secluded alley bullshit, or otaku moeshit maid cafe?"

Man, she really hoped he'd pick the former, just so she didn't have to pull a Kaerunuma with her explanation. Nowhere was totally safe, but going to the maid cafe at least had the benefit of, if people overheard you, they'd just think you were talking about some chuuni shit. On the downside, it meant the high possibility of people she knew thinking she was into some chuuni shit, plus a high possibility of running into Frogface. Tough call.
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Wagoo

Ren took in a short yet sharp breath as the disaster artist responded to his statement. A quizzical look graced his features, and it was obvious he was confused about something. "Wait, a maid café?" he thusly responded. He'd never been to one before. Judging by how privacy was probably vastly preferred over somewhere a tad more public (along with the interest of time), it was clear this would not be Ren's first time. Besides, as far as he was concerned, maid cafés were those places for people one or two decades older than him went when they felt pathetic about themselves and didn't want to tell friends and family about their problems.

"... I'll go with the first one," Ren answered. He seemed to slowly be disturbed over some other matter, if how some shame came over him was anything to go by.

I'm a maid café's customer base.
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FirebreathFishslap
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!

"Good choice, I really didn't want to have to stare at fetish bait for the next hour. Let's go," Kaede said, motioning again for Ren to follow.

She was quiet as she led the way, walking with the confident stride of someone who might bite off someone's nose for getting in her way. All the while, she glanced up and down the street, looking for anyone who might be following, or otherwise paying attention, as they approached the next building on the street -- a generic looking Hoshiyen location that could have been found anywhere in Nagashima -- and then ducked into the alley alongside it, leading away back around the building to the back of it.

The narrow alleyway was dark and damp, with a large, green steel dumpster nearly blocking one end. A door leading into the Hoshiyen had "NO ENTRY" stamped onto the door in imposing, black lettering, and cigarette butts littered the ground around it. The alley stank of stale coffee rounds, cigarette smoke, and general disgusting trash smells.

Kaede, apparently nonplussed, leaned against the wall of the Hoshiyen. "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" was spraypainted into the brick, with a small grey man painted next to it.

"So based on your piss poor attempt to subtlely let me in on you being a Persona-user, I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're the guy who's been posting nonsense all over Bedlam with a nonsense username. How far off am I?" Kaede asked, crossing her arms.
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