| The Art of Information.; [Taira, Susaki.] | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 20 2017, 06:12 PM (386 Views) | |
| Wagoo | Mar 24 2017, 08:30 PM Post #11 |
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Ren briefly nodded as he started to follow the disaster artist onward, towards whatever alley she had in mind. In contrast to the potential malevolence akin to a wild animal ready to pounce at any second, Ren seemed a tad ready to run away, which only became more obvious as time wore on. All in all, you could hardly blame him- the fifteen year-old, continuously glancing and turning at random at his surroundings as they became dirtier and more sinister. Briefly, his mind questioned how a place so close to City Hall could be in such poor condition. He ended that thought immediately. That was better left for elsewhere, in safety. For now, it was better to divert resources towards some other task. Ignoring the smell, perhaps. At her immediate response about Ren's identity, he recoiled a little, taking a step back. "Wait, what!?" he exclaimed. "I'm, ah, I don't do that!" he replied, trying to keep a handle on it. Ren really didn't want his alternate account being discovered as him behind the curtain. Sometimes, anonymity was way too useful, and losing that tool was a bad idea. Nevertheless, Ren had prepared for this; he had chosen to be less subtle and more honest under his other account. If Tsubouchi had to be revealed as the alias for Ren Taira, so be it. "... Wait, was begging the instructor of the Tsurugi Dojo to flee Nagashima a dumb thing to do?... Oh no, it was." Ren sighed as he awaited to see if the ruse could work. |
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| FirebreathFishslap | Mar 26 2017, 08:29 AM Post #12 |
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!
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Kaede affixed Ren with a flat stare as he weakly tried to deny her statements, and then scowled as he went on to talking about something completely different. "What? No, that's not what I was talking about. Why the fuck would you even tell her that?!" Kaede asked. She sighed and started massaging the spot between her eyes again. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts... "I was talking about some nonsense someone's been posting on Bedlam recently about Indian condos or some shit," she said, more calmly this time. "You know, the kind of shit that's some obvious code words for Persona shit, despite being on the forum for Persona shit?" |
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| Wagoo | Mar 26 2017, 08:25 PM Post #13 |
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"Because all of this is kinda nuts!?" Ren snapped back, looking all too worked up over everything. His expression held like that for a few seconds, but eventually, it softened. Regret came to rule over his face, and he looked upon her with apology. "... I'm sorry," he stated. "It's just, well... how did you cope? How do you cope now?" "Indian condos? That's... weird," Ren stated, looking a little quizzical under his stress. "Well, it's not me. My screenname's legible for one; I wrote mine as an actual name." |
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| FirebreathFishslap | Mar 26 2017, 09:06 PM Post #14 |
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!
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"I really don't believe you, but honestly? I really don't care anymore," Kaede said flatly, crossing her arms. If he was going to act like an idiot, then he could keep acting like an idiot. So long as his paranoia didn't get someone killed. ...And knowing her luck, it probably would. Maybe it would be a good idea to work some confidence into him just so this didn't go all FUBAR later. She let out a sigh and dropped her arms. "How do I cope? I compartmentalize, first of all. If I spent all day worrying about Persona stuff and how it's affecting me and everyone, I'd just end up in a self-sustaining spiral of stress and worry. And trust me, I've already been there when it comes to Persona shit. Dunno how much reading you've done on Bedlam, but if you've seen any of those old Oracle threads, hey, yeah, that was me, I was having some legit issues back then." She reached into her pocket, pulling out a black fan, which she began to fan herself with lazily. "The second was, I stopped treating Personas like some kind of alien force. I didn't even like my Persona early on -- still don't really appreciate it, but that's just the world being an asshole for me -- but I learned to live with it. After all, in the end, it's just... me. Everyone's is. And I certainly didn't treat everyone with a Persona like a walking time bomb. "And I guess third... In the end, I know that this is all fucked on a lot of levels, but I don't let it control me. I just do what I feel I need to to make things better," Kaede said. She snapped her fan closed and slipped it back into her pocket. "Do you get what I'm going for, here?" |
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| Wagoo | Mar 26 2017, 11:08 PM Post #15 |
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Ren bit his lip as she crossed her arms. This conversation was going far further south than he had expected when he saw her. Oh man, I don't want to make another account.... he thought glumly. Stress continued to rule the day, it seemed. Ren's expression became one of someone unsure of the answers, but contemplative. His left hand went beneath his chin, and it seemed to cradle him up as he contemplated his navel with the look of someone seeing a really nasty pile of dung. Eventually, Ren turned back tot he disaster artist, face all too questioning for many. "I... well, I think I understand what you mean," Ren began. "The compartmentalizing bit, I've kind of done, but it was more temporarily to forget for however long I can instead of for... set amounts." He sighed briefly before speaking again. "Um, I read some information about Carl Jung and, well, I understand a, ah, tad what you mean about being you. But still... it's hard to see a fat African who really has different values as me." He paused a moment, seeming to put together another sentence. Sure enough, Ren spoke up another question. "What was it you did to make things better? Ehm, how did you learn it?" |
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| FirebreathFishslap | Apr 24 2017, 02:22 PM Post #16 |
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!
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"I learned to trust in my friends a lot more," Kaede said. "You really don't realize how much they mean until you're at rock bottom and they're offering to stand by you and make sure you get out of things okay. You have to learn that you can't do everything on your own, or you'll go insane." She folded her arms. "People get their Personas and they always... always think they have to do everything on their own. And it hurts them. They refuse to rely on others, and then they lose control of themselves. It's a pattern I've seen way too many times. And maybe there's some things you can do on your own, but if you close yourself completely off, and leave the people who care about you high and dry, then when everything goes wrong... all that happens is you leave a lot of people sad. If I'm convinced of anything now, it's that going it alone always... always ends in tragedy." There was a distant look in her eyes as she stared off at the other end of the alley. "...And I don't really want to see my friends cry over that kind of person ever again." |
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| Wagoo | May 2 2017, 07:47 PM Post #17 |
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The disaster artist seeing beyond the horizon was something not lost on Ren. As he looked upon her, guilt seemed to overtake him, causing him to rub his temples with his left hand. What she had said seemed to be something clearly learned the hard way. Ren soon ran his left hand through his hair, feeling what it was currently covering up. He'd learnt something else the hard way too in recent times. Better to take this lesson to heart and save himself from trouble, it seemed. Ah, the joys of being proven correct, Aesop cooed out, sounding quite smug with himself. I... I guess you're right, Ren relented, sighing aloud at his Persona. "I think I get what you mean," he began, speaking aloud. "For what it's worth, I don't really have any intentions of going off into the city as some sort of vigilante dressed as a stage hand... or anything really beyond just learning about whatever new comes up. I'm... ehm, I'm not going off to try and capture Dr. Yamaguchi or anything like that either regarding the ruins. And I'm definitely avoiding troubling problems unless I'm with friends about it. Both as a metaphor and literal, in and out of that place." He rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand. "Though really, I mean getting the Persona to.. dangit, I gotta stop rambling." He shook his head, disappointed in himself. |
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| FirebreathFishslap | Jul 5 2017, 01:51 PM Post #18 |
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!
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The distant look faded from Kaede's eyes as Ren started to talk, and she turned back toward him and shrugged. "So you're just going to keep it casual and half-ass your involvement? I can't say I can really judge you for it, but that's kind of disappointing to hear." She sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I think it's good that you're only throwing yourself into danger if friends are around. But I think a lot of people are getting the wrong impression when me and a lot of people have been telling them to 'rely on other people'. They're not as adventurous as they used to be. You can rely on other people without being a coward, I guess is what I'm trying to get at." Despite what she was saying, Kaede didn't sound particularly irritated, and she scratched under the rim of her beret casually. "Sorry. Bit of a pet peeve lately. I don't really want to go back into the ruins all that badly, but it feels like if I don't, it'll just keep going on and on... Anyways, what was that about your Persona?" |
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| Wagoo | Jul 5 2017, 09:19 PM Post #19 |
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At the use of 'half-ass' Ren cringed as his Persona made a triumphant sound that reminded him of a more feral dog in his mind. He began to run his left hand through his hair, and his tone held a quality of embarrassment having lunch with shame. "Ehm, that's not how I'd put it...." "That's just it, though, isn't it? Adventerous," Ren emphasized, tapping his right foot as if to vent out something. He seemed to look at his hands, dwelling on his right palm, before clasping them behind his back. "The problem with adventures is that they're usually... well, adventures when a Persona or Shadow is involved usually means 'deadly' or 'killer' or some other word that works. People don't want to end up throwing away their lives to find some scrap of notebook paper or a CD- wait, scratch that, most people don't want to risk throwing away their lives at all." He let out a sigh, but it didn't seem to release any stress that was weighing on him. At the inquiry, Ren froze, and Aesop let out a laugh that couldn't be narrowed down to any specific creature or animal in his mind. Oh, go on. Admit your opinion of me. How much of a pure annoyance I am, yet always being correct.... This time, it seemed to dovetail specifically with a horse's neigh. Ren shook his head for a moment, trying to clear his mind. "Well... it's nothing too bad. I know that my Persona is a part of me, and I recognize that. I mean, he sounds like me whenever I try to write something. That's gotta count for something, right?" Aesop fell silent at that, though Ren could tell he was pleased. "But still... Aesop is annoying as all get out, and sometimes, I wish he would shut up." The last few words seemed to address more Aesop than the disaster artist. "I've tried using schoolwork to attempt to focus him out, but still, it seems weird that some sort of fat African storyteller is my representation... how does someone from Africa represent me? How do all these things from around the world represent us?" Aesop grumbled, but it fit a growl more. |
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| FirebreathFishslap | Jul 30 2017, 10:37 AM Post #20 |
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I'm the best! I'm the king of me! I'm gonna eat chips out of the garbage!
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Kaede let out a loud, obvious sigh once Ren finished, clearly not impressed with the answer she'd been given. But when she spoke up again, her voice didn't sound particularly judgmental. "I get why you're doing it, but don't try and shut your Persona out. The thing about Personas, they're not a one-to-one representation of yourself. It's more like they represent something about yourself. Maybe it's something you're only aware of unconsciously. Maybe it's something about the direction your life is taking. The point is, it's not something you should try and ignore. Trust me, I tried. Didn't do me any good," Kaede said. She looked away from Ren, staring down the alleyway again, before looking back at him. "And... look, I get you about the Ruins. No one wants to run in there and possibly get their ass killed. But literally everything we've learned about the Ruins says that it's a bad thing, it's going to get everyone else killed someday, and we're the only ones who can possibly do anything about it. Normal people can't even go near the place without help," Kaede said, crossing her arms. "Maybe everyone else is content to leave it alone or make it someone else's problem, but I'm not. Not when I know people are getting hurt because of it." |
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