[Open] + [Closed] DIVERSITY

[scooptimistic]

WHO: Maya and many individuals
WHERE: All over
WHEN: The month of June
WHAT: Punishment shenanigans, quests, and a catch-all for additional threads?? Closed threads will be added to the post, open prompts will be beneath the cut.
WARNINGS: Talk of nonexistent gruesome injuries, spoilers for both P2 games idk is that a warning!!!!
NOTES: If you'd like to plot anything additional, you can PM me or reach me on plurk at starswept!



[ That first week of June. ]

[ If you are a teenager or younger, regardless of whether or not this young woman has met you, she's looking incredibly upset the minute she gets a good look at you. This is a prelude to her hurrying over, gaze anxious, as she looks you over and-- ]

This is... definitely going to be a weird question, but are you actually hurt?

[ SHE MIGHT LOOK LIKE SHE'S ABOUT TO CRY. ]

[ Alternatively, she can be spotted making a much slower way around the town. Slower because she's apparently decided to use her necktie as a blindfold, and even Maya isn't about to go sprinting about an area where she can't see.

It won't stop her from bumping into someone, or-- ]

Whoops! Sorry!!

[ A tree. Or the well. Or literally anything else, but she doesn't seem keen to take that blindfold off? Wonder why???? ]

Comments

[scooptimistic]

[ Maya studies him for a very long moment, lips pursed in thought and eyes a fair shade darker than usual. He's not wrong. If anyone would understand the crazier parts of it, it would probably be Minato.

But... ]

It's a long story. Are you sure?

[messianic]

I'm sure.

[He says that simply, nodding firmly, expression calm.]

If you want, we can find somewhere to sit while you talk.

[scooptimistic]

Might as well, right? I think it might be kind of silly to have this talk while we're just standing here staring at each other.

[ So! She'll start walking. There has to be a helpful tree somewhere. ]

[messianic]

[Helpful tree, straight ahead!! It's nice that there's plenty of foliage in this town even if most of it is Not Green.]

This should work, right?

[scooptimistic]

Perfect!

[ Maya settles down underneath it, resting her back against the trunk. ]

I guess before I get too into it-- have you met Philemon? He sometimes takes the form of a butterfly, but the rest of the time, he's this ponytailed guy in a butterfly mask.

[messianic]

Mm, no, I haven't met him. Or played the Persona game. I just heard about it from Nanjo-san, but...

[A shake of his head.]

I got my Persona in a different way, I guess. Or maybe it was always there...?

[scooptimistic]

It might have been. I can't say I know your story, but I also know there have been different methods to gain a Persona.

Just... uh, kind of forcible ones.

[messianic]

... I've heard of a lot of those, too.

[...He sighs, shaking his head.]

But mine was there when I needed it, when I was in danger. ...But anyway, that's not the point.

[THE POINT IS--]

Is Philemon part of your story?

[scooptimistic]

He... is.

... Long story short, we got caught up in a bet between Philemon, who more or less represented humanity's potential, and Nyarlathotep, who represented the darker side of humanity. The chaos. Shadows. At the end of it, I was... killed. That brought about the end of the world.

[ ... ]

In order to reverse it, Philemon offered a solution: the world could be reset, my death would be undone, but everyone had to let go of their memories of each other. It would take going all the way back to a time where we had never met, and guaranteeing that... that particular meeting would never happen.

[messianic]

[... Well. That's a lot to process, she wasn't lying about that. It hurts to think of humans--normal human beings like Maya and her friends--getting caught in between some sort of weird cosmic game between godly beings to the extent that it would get Maya killed.

And that...

That was the solution?

He frowns, brow furrowing.]

... That was the only solution...?

[scooptimistic]

It was. You have to understand, Minato-kun, Nyarlathotep had been working on this for years-- as far back as our childhoods. That was the only way to set things right.

[ Unfortunately. A strong bond of friendship between all of them, broken by their own hands-- because they'd had no other choice. ]

[messianic]

[... He just doesn't understand.]

But... but why would they use you like this? That seems cruel.

[scooptimistic]

That's a great question. And honestly, I wish I could tell you why.

[ GODS. ]

[messianic]

[FUCK GODS - minato arisato, probably]

... I guess it doesn't matter right now. [Not as much, anyway.]

So everyone had to...forget each other? Is that really what happened? [Because Maya seems to remember quite well right now?]

[scooptimistic]

It was supposed to. I honestly didn't remember anything until I ran into a boy, and got this strange bruise on my torso that wouldn't go away. There was a sense of deja vu, too-- as though I knew him, but couldn't quite place where.

... That's about the time that things started happening that were pretty much parallels of what had originally happened. People calling on a "Joker", who would answer them. A fire at a museum. An attack at a gym. The boy kept appearing and trying to keep me uninvolved. He didn't want to answer my questions, but I'd get these... odd flashes, in those places, hearing voices of people who weren't there, or seeing things that also weren't there.

I did eventually find out, though. That boy, Tatsuya-- was someone precious to me, that I'd forgotten. And like Philemon had promised, everyone did forget in order to reset the word. But Tatsuya-kun...

[ Maya trails off, eyes darkening. ]

Tatsuya-kun... couldn't forget. He didn't want to lose his friends. And because of that simple thought, hints of what had happened in a world that no longer existed began to creep into this world. And after he explained it to me, I remembered.

[messianic]

[Joker? Attacks? People like that? What--]

... He couldn't bring himself to agree to forget.

[Minato can't blame him; being forgotten by everyone you care about is the singular most painful experience--though he thinks it might've been less painful on him if he hadn't been the only one to remember.]

... What happened then? [Obviously the world is still intact, so--]

[scooptimistic]

I hugged him into submission and fought alongside him with a... I mean, I guess you'd call them something of a motley crew, but we did end up fighting Nyarlathotep, who had been planning to restore the world back to its destroyed state-- something that would have happened if our original group had all remembered. There was something involving the others having to face their Shadows too, so it was a long process all around.

-- And of course, right after we beat him was when I met you.

[messianic]

[... Whew.]

... You weren't kidding about it being a lot, Amano-san...

[a beat.]

Sorry, did you say you hugged him into submission?

[scooptimistic]

I did.

[ Of course she did. ]

All it took was one look at him when he told me everything and I couldn't help it. He was being stubborn, but he was also exhausted.

... And after not realizing everything he'd been through for the sake of people who no longer knew him, it was really all I could do.

[messianic]

... You're a really caring person, huh...?

[Honestly...]

To see what someone needed at a time like that.

[scooptimistic]

I really should have seen it sooner.

[ Maya pauses, blinking back tears that she... honestly hadn't quite realized were there. ]

... That's my regret, Minato-kun. That such a lonely kid had to go through all of that on his own and I couldn't be there for him.

He used to call me "Maya-nee", but what kind of big sister would have ever let him deal with so much by himself?

[messianic]

[...Ah.

So that's... how it is. Minato's quiet for a moment, considering that. And then, softly:]

He made that choice. You didn't remember anything, and he knew it.

[But he chose to remember, because it was too painful to forget, and Minato can't deny that it sounds incredibly lonely, but:]

I bet... it was a real relief for him when you hugged him after remembering. When... even despite everything, you cared about him that much.

[... Isn't that what Minato was hoping for too, when SEES forgot?]

[scooptimistic]

I don't think the bonds we make disappear entirely, even when we can't draw on the memories that forged them.

[ Geez... okay, right, no more crying, Maya. Pardon her, she's just going to quickly swipe at her eyes. ]

I still felt something familiar, when I ran into him for the first time. And with the others, too, even if I didn't-- well, I can't follow through on it now anyway.

It was just... I couldn't let someone just break in front of me. And especially not someone who was practically family in a time that didn't technically exist.

So if it helped him in the end... I'd be relieved.

[messianic]

[... Yeah. Minato thought so. She's that sweet, that caring... of course she wanted to do whatever she could for him. And he's certain that she did.

He doesn't know the boy she's talking about, but he's sure of it.]

I'm sure it helped him in the end. I don't think you're the sort of person who would ever be satisfied with leaving something like that "half-done".

[scooptimistic]

[ She hopes that she did. For Tatsuya's sake. ]

You're right.

[ He seems to be oddly convinced about that, but he's also not wrong. ]

... But wow, I sure did unload a lot on you, huh?