What is your wish?

[Affiliated with Citta-Alveare. Roleplay blog for Mariko "Marie" Kusumi of Persona 4.]"Believe in humanity's wish. Just one more time." Rank: Nobody Apt. Z-2.

[prismaticeyes]

[☁︎] Separation.

[shuunenbukai-blog]

      "The hell? Hey, what gives!" Just because she knows this weather’s got something to do with what Marie’s doing. Or maybe part of it. She doesn’t know, it’s just damn fucking annoying to get her clothes wet all of a sudden. Silence follows, however, a guarded look and stance remains when she mentions having known about ghouls. Finally someone who seems to know, not like most everyone else she’s met. But it’s not exactly something she can take comfort in, either.

      “Cut off the nickname, will you? Tch, ‘rough’? Understatement of the year.” Though a part of her is relieved it hasn’t raised hostility from the other. A fight’s a fight and she isn’t one to back down from one, but this isn’t something that leads to an outcome when one of them would just come back to life again. It’s pointless, and she knows that. 

      “They tried to kill me for it. Me, my friends, my family… The life of a ghoul is hell back at home. Some of us run, some of us fight. And some of us try to blend in. When the world’s created an organization to kill those of our kind without even understanding our circumstances, we do whatever we can to survive.”

[prismaticeyes]

"...What? It's just water," Marie scoffs, waving a hand nonetheless and causing the rain to form a dome around them instead. She furrows her brows and tries to read the expression on Touka's face. Maybe she's not human, but she looks human, and that's good enough for her. Teddie's not exactly a human being either but that doesn't mean he's not under her protection.

There's silence, or relative silence, for a few moments.

"Which are you? Run, fight, blend in...? This city's got to be some kind of improvement...no one seems to care about anything here."

Marie doesn't appear to know how to react. "So...nothing else works. You have to eat humans. And then that means no peace for any of you. I don't get it. What kind of god made it like that?"

[plegiancrowmaster]

Eh, that sounds confusing.

[He barely know how cars worked in this place so he couldn’t imagine a car with a room inside it that was following someone everywhere. However, the girl’s comment made an unforeseen obstacle to his family planning.]

Ehhh, is that so? I didn’t know about that so I guess THAT is really troublesome! Tee hee~

[Even then, Henry took things lightly and he wouldn’t preocupy himself with the details, he’d see that his wish came true one way or another in the future so in due time he’d do what he had to do to fulfill it, but right now there was no use fretting over it.]

[prismaticeyes]

"Thank you! Margaret's always acting like the answer's super obvious, and The Nose never says anything unless we have a guest. The Velvet Room's just...the weirdest thing ever...!"

Finished with her little rant, Marie folded her arms, hearing Henry's response out before shrugging her shoulders. Man. Everything about this place made her ache, and on top of that...

"Something about you is just...really easy to talk with. You're easy to talk with, I mean." She eyed the crow that was still on his shoulder.

"So, Nightwing, you're really going to try and be optimistic about this place, huh? I guess that's not too bad an attitude to have, even if I don't get it. So tell me something about this city that you like--besides the whole 'not being in a desert' thing."

[prismaticeyes]

[☁︎] Separation.

[shuunenbukai-blog]

      AND that just earns her a scoff. Exuding the bitterness that she’d felt about the matter for so long. "Weirder? Hah, if only that was it…" Her expression darkens. This isn’t the first she would introduce herself as one, though it would be to another non-human that isn’t a ghoul.

      “Those ‘shadows’ you call monsters? I don’t know what the hell you mean by ‘human psyche’ or whatever, but have you ever considered the fact that maybe they’ve got no choice but to eat what they have to?” Should she just tell her straight up? As a ghoul to another non-human… A fucking god. ”Fine, you really want to know? Not like there’s anything you can do about it,” except she’ll probably want to kill her, if it was her duty to protect humans. There is a bout of anxiety that arises like the first time she had, never before having the freedom to reveal this to anyone, but in a different world—a different city that isn’t aiming to kill them all for what they are… "I’m a ghoul. I eat human meat to survive because I have no choice. There is nothing else for me…" 

      "So, what do you think of me now? Made friends with anyone weirder than a ‘monster' like me?” If Marie raises no acceptance and presents hostility she’s got no qualms about fighting back, god or no god who even gives a shit when she’s faced with no choice in the matter now?

[prismaticeyes]

Marie instinctively bristles at the dismissive sound, as if the huff is a knife being drawn. She can be a prickly individual and going on the offensive is really all she knows how to do.

The explanation sends alarm bells ringing inside of her head. However, though she draws her shoulders up, she makes herself shift back into her former position. The rain collapses all at once, finally drenching them, sliding off of the brim of Marie's hat and staining the cement with darkness.

She scratches her cheek. "A ghoul...? I've heard about those." One of Yu's Personas. Taking the form of the mythological creature. "And you eat humans." Her tone turns dark at that. What made her different than Teddie? Could she maybe find some way around eating people too?

"...Argh! I hate stuff like this! Technically yeah, it's my job to protect humans, but you're not some mindless monster, and this isn't even my world." Marie folds her arms and sighs. "You stupidconfusinglosercreep...I guess that makes it pretty rough for you back home though..."

The sympathy sounds off-handed but she doesn't know how else to show it. She knows. Humans can be very cruel.

[amatoress]

    "I wasn’t sneaking up on you! Gosh," she hadn’t even seen her, granted she probably should have, Marie was pretty easy to spot. Shaking her sleeves to rid them of any left over snow, a slight dampness to her clothing. She thinks to return to her apartment to change but she was almost out of the district already. Upon hearing her words it seemed Rise wasn’t the newest member of their group to end up here as she’d first presumed. "I’ve only been here a little longer than you, have you seen the others? I know senpai is here," and she’d crossed paths with Naoto and Chie.

    "You might think differently if you had to live in this district like me, seriously you think I could bunk with one of you guys?" Although the idea of sharing a place with Kanji or Yosuke wasn’t exactly a good one but she’d at least feel safer. "Huh?" Reaching for her hair to feel a lump of snow lodged in her locks. "Aw jeeze, now my hair is ruined, nice to know you haven’t lost your touch though," recalling their snowball fight and how Marie pretty much buried Yosuke in snow. 

[prismaticeyes]

She might've slipped an apology into her mutterings if it'd been Yu she accidentally smacked with a snowball, but wasn't, so she just showed a bit of a teasing smile at the comment.

However she soon went back to looking a little peeved, like usual. "I haven't seen Yu yet. Or anyone for that matter. You're the first friendly face I've run into around here." A bit of thought, and she decided not to use the nicknames she had for the upcoming individuals so there'd be no confusion. "Unfortunately, I have seen Sho and Adachi..."

She shrugged one shoulder. "Sector Two's not much better than the Districts. That's where they put me. But if you still don't care..."

Marie...wasn't really sure about what she was going to offer, but to hell with it.

"...I wouldn't mind letting you stay for a while. The sigh-en-tists said something about new housing after you've been here for a month...? I think, anyway." Or maybe she was trying to apologize for the snowball.

[prismaticeyes]

[☁︎] Separation.

[shuunenbukai-blog]

      Fragments of the human psyche…  She’s confuddled over the term, and it’s likely she would’ve made attempts to make sense of it in the seconds after, had she not heard another familiar term that Marie had just used. Monsters that feed on humans. She almost… almost thinks this girl was talking about ghouls, but what was all that ‘fragments of the human psyche’ thing supposed to mean? She thinks it over in place of responding, but what her train of thought’s only halted by her response. Ah, right. Of course.

      …Because she’s a deity.

      “Even if I told you, I doubt you’d know what it means.” Previous encounters would say as much. She sighs, wishing she had little reason to refuse the question. If this girl was supposed to protect humans she wouldn’t like what she’s about to hear, if she’d properly said the truth. "So it doesn’t matter. Just do your job of protecting humans like you say."

      “…but if even a god like you could get kidnapped, can you really?” 

[prismaticeyes]

"So? I didn't think you'd understand what a Shadow is either, but that doesn't mean I didn't tell you." Marie's brows furrow with annoyance, but it's a little thing, not marring her expression for very long. "I've made friends with weirder, you know."

There's the question. A little bit mocking, maybe, or perhaps just totally honest. Could be both. And unfortunately she couldn't deny it at all. Lightning crackled through the rain clouds, startlingly close, but the bolts don't touch down. (She's not in control of them at the moment so perhaps it's best if they don't.)

Marie shrugs, turning halfway away from her.

"...Can't really argue with that. I'm not exactly the strongest god around, but to have something like this happen to me...it's embarrassing..." That's twice now she's not been tough enough to fight an adversary. 

[magatsudetective]

"Oh yeah?Go tell your friends that. I’m done trying to convince them."

[prismaticeyes]

"...What? Are they really somehow pinning this on you? Am I missing something here? You're not the one rampaging through the city. And I don't think you manipulated anyone into this."

[plegiancrowmaster]

Huh? Velvet room? That sounds like a very cozy room!

[Truth be told, Henry’s cape was made from a material similar to velvet so it was pretty comfortable to wear and it was particularly great to keep warm when the weather was cold.]

Eh? Why should I need to get out of the city to have a family? It’s not like I can’t make a family here? I mean, I could get used to this place since my old home wasn’t as prosperous as this one!

[Disregarding the whole constant wars that Henry found fun, he had already had his fill of fun with those so he could get used to a busy-looking world that had lots of new things for him to discover and learn. Not to mention there was much more resources in this world so there were so many new dishes he had never seen and many interesting things he could get used to so he had no real attachment to his old home.]

[prismaticeyes]

Marie scoffed. "Except it's not really a room. It's more like...a car. And it's always traveling and never stops anywhere since it's following Yu on his journey or...something."

At his next words, she tapped her fingers along her cheek, pondering what she'd read. "I think...you can get married here or whatever, but the city doesn't let anyone have kids..." Unless he was going to adopt? There was certainly enough stray kids prancing about.

Maybe she was overthinking it.

"Would you really want to have a family here? These sigh-en-tists have free reign over the place. It'd suck to never be able to go beyond the walls of this city...Weren't you at least free to do what you wanted back home?"

[fireflytides]

purpose || ca intro/open

[fireflytides]

               he really did not see the problem in laughing to himself. a lot of people seemed to think of him as an oddity, but he had to ask himself; why did he care if this girl thought him weird or not?

               shrugging to himself and dismissing her previous statement with a fluid wave, an indication that he was not going to bother arguing about it anymore, he regarded the girl again. although she looked like an ordinary human girl, there was something about her that was strange, although he could not put his finger on it.

               ”a jester? of course not. i’m the lord of the lands from where i come from. at least … i was until i was brought to this place." or before demise’s defeat. he briefly wondered if he was still the lord of those lands, but if he wasn’t, he’d easily take them back once he got back.

               ”although i do like to be indulged with my title of lord, ghirahim is fine," he introduced himself.

[prismaticeyes]

He wasn't willing to debate being weird, and Marie didn't find it worth arguing about, so that was that. An equally bizarre name for an equally bizarre individual.

"Ghi...Ghirah..." She muttered under her breath. Like usual she had trouble forming strange words on her tongue. And thus resorted to nicknames. "So, are you worried about the state of your lands, Lord Diamonds?"

Marie wasn't too worried about Inaba. Yet, anyway. Provided nothing else ridiculous happened, following on the heels of that stupid fighting tournament. There was usually a grace period before trouble began again.

"Though something tells me you're not exactly the guardian of wherever you come from," she added dryly. 

[amatoress]

- - ✮ prismaticeyes

[amatoress]

    It was definitely chillier than yesterday, adorning a thick scarf in an attempt to warm herself up. Once stepping outside she noted the large flecks of snow drifting down, so it snowed even here huh? Somehow snow made even this district look somewhat pleasant, that didn’t mean she wanted to hang around here all day though. Intending to leave district three to visit some of her other friends who’d also found their way here, she had hardly expected to be hit in the face with something cold and wet. A snowball.

    "Hey! What gives?" Hit square in the face, she attempts to wipe away the cold remnants. Whoever that was they were gonna get a mouthful! Turning to face her ‘opponent’ but once again she was faced with something or rather someone unexpected. "Marie-chan?" Her rage from earlier briefly quelled as she’s glad to see another familiar face in this strange city. "Since when where you here? But I mean it’s great to see you…but hey! What’s with the snowball?"  

[prismaticeyes]

Snow held...fond memories for Marie. Well, mostly fond. There'd been snow on the ground, sparkling in the sunlight, when her friends had pulled her out of the Hollow Forest--and it'd sealed itself away for good.

So maybe that was why she ended up causing a snowflurry even in the underground District. No one could deny it was a visual improvement, that much was for sure.

Marie was startled out of her musings by the sound of footsteps, and on reflex, she gathered up some snow and--

...Talk about a familiar voice. Oops. She dusted her hands off, apparently not feeling the cold at all, sounding utterly casual. "...Oh, it's you. You shouldn't sneak up on me like that." Lack of social skills showing once more, Marie just continued on.

"Anyway, I've been stuck in this place for a week, give or take. I don't really care about the housing or whatever since I've stayed in worse, just...This whole situation's a colossal pain...literally." Being separated from the place one was tied to really sucked. "...There's still some snow in your hair, by the way." 

[prismaticeyes]

[☁︎] Separation.

[shuunenbukai-blog]

      A deity? It’s easy to say that’s unbelievable, and she probably would have if she hadn’t witnessed what this girl had done with her own eyes. And she’s acting like it’s no big deal, either. It’s only puzzling when she mentions the word, "Shadow? What is that supposed to mean?"

      “So you’ve never met anyone like me before… Not ever…” Weird. Though she’s not one to openly speak of being a ghoul, and seriously, who even would unless they’d wanted to get chased by the CCG all the time? She feels it’s only fair to tell this girl what she is, and there’s a lesser difficulty to it considering Marie isn’t even human. Still, she’s used to being cautious about the subject at this point in her life, even now. Maybe she won’t say till she asks. "Hah, at least you’re some powerful being and people don’t want to kill you for it, do they?"

[prismaticeyes]

Asking Marie to explain something was not a good idea. She shifted her weight to her other leg, arms crossed, attempting to find a way to put it where it'd make sense. "Shadows are...well, you can call them fragments of the human psyche. They're monsters that feed on humans, and most of the time? They aren't really all that smart."

What she said next made an almost visible question mark pop over Marie's head. She just seemed honestly and thoroughly perplexed. "Why would anyone want to kill me? I'm supposed to protect humans, not hurt them. At least that's how it is nowadays..." Marie trailed off, watching the rain for a few moments. "You're not a Shadow. And you're not a god either. So what are you supposed to be then?"

[plegiancrowmaster]

[Before meeting the Shepherds, Henry would probably have been unable to seriously answer what the difference between friends and family was, but after finding friends of his own within the group, he thought he might have an idea.]

Well, I meant more like having a family of my own you know? I can’t ask for brothers, sisters or new fathers so I was thinking maybe I can get married and have children to have a family of my own!

[People used to forget because Henry looked a lot younger than he was, but he was already a young adult.]

But I don’t think blood-related families are the only real families! My parents were never my real family after all, tee hee~ And if your friends know all about that, sounds like I should talk with him too! I really like those topics! 

[There he went again, talking about sad topics about his life with a smile on his face. ]

[prismaticeyes]

Him? As a father? It took all of Marie's tenuous self-control not to blurt that out. The wish itself wasn't a bad thing at all, she just had trouble wrapping her head around the concept. But if that was what he wanted, then she had no right to judge it.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone in the city knows more about bonds than Yu," she muttered, shifting her bag on her shoulder. Marie huffed, defensive. "Not that I don't know about them too. That's all they ever went on about in the Velvet Room."

Marie regarded him again, a searching stare as if she could see something within.

"I wouldn't say that's an impossible wish. But to make that wish come true, you'll have to get out of the city first." She sighed, rubbing her arms. "I guess that's the difficult part..."

[virideiu-blog-deactivated201609]

Well, so much for a calm interaction.

"N-No—"

The girl’s reaction, in turn, made Laei become startled and, moving backwards, ends up falling out of her seat and leading right onto her backside. She knew some people were rather shy about their work, but that was no way to react!

Of course, she probably should of not startled her.

"I-I’m sorry." Immediately, she’s apologizing, feeling instantly bad about making the other upset. Truthfully, she hadn’t seen anything; in fact, the only reason she even knew the other was writing poetry was just the way it was formatted.

"I-I didn’t see anything! I just saw the format, that’s all. I’m really sorry for scaring you." 

[prismaticeyes]

"H-Huh? What? Who said anything about being scared? Nosypresumptuousjerkfacelo--"

Marie's aggravated mutterings were cut short when she noticed the absolute, well, sincerity on the other's face. Even more embarrassment filled her eyes as she realized what'd she done; she was used to Narukami reading her poems and reacting to her blows-up about it with only the slightest amused smile. This was...unusual.

Still holding her notebook to her chest, Marie offered the girl a hand to help her up, pointedly looking the other way.

"It's not...that big a deal then." The words sounded like they hurt to say. Each one was mumbled and her face remained bright red. "You're not hurt, are you?" Apologize. It was that easy. It was easy for everyone else except her.

Despite being a goddess 100% for the people, she wasn't all too good at interacting with said people.

[virideiu-blog-deactivated201609]

Literature. It was a thing that Laei found herself enjoying very much; maybe it was because reading wasn’t something she was able to enjoy much in her world as of late, but the very idea of stepping into someone’s creation with her mind and learning about the passion put into others’ works.

She hadn’t meant to look at the woman’s notebook; in fact, had she not turned her head at that moment to look up at the birds chirping in the tree, emerald eyes wouldn’t have caught the sight of stanzas on the paper.

                               ”A fan of poetry?” 

[prismaticeyes]

Marie was spending careful time on the appearance of the prose--as integral to the presentation of it as the words themselves, in her opinion. The lettering was stiff and blocky, mimicking digital displays on watches or other clocks.

The sudden voice made her jump, causing her pen to skid across the paper. Marie whirled around to face the girl, embarrassed, and her embarrassment always transformed into anger.

"Aaaahh! You didn't see anything, did you?!" She hugged her notebook to her chest, eyes darting. "I-I never said you could look! It's not even finished yet!" Her face was entirely red. "J-Just who do you think you are?!"

[plegiancrowmaster]

Uh? Television?… OH! You mean those square artifacts that show images from far away? Nope! They do pretty amazing tricks but I do real magic! 

[Henry knew those so-called magicians since they also existed in his world and once he saw one of those on the technologic gizmo, he realized those were in essence the same kind of tricksters.They were basically a show for others to enjoy but they didn’t delve into the arcane arts like Henry or Tharja.

Marie’s next questions, however, made Henry think a bit before answering.]

A wish? Not really, I mean, I can pretty much grant any of my wishes with my own magic. But then again, my magic is not almighty so it’s not like I can do everything with it… Hmmm….

[Henry thought about it for half a minute and then he finally replied.]

Maybe I’d want to have a family? I mean, having friends it’s nice and all but I think I’d like to try having a family!

[prismaticeyes]

Marie believed him. She guessed. Weirder things had happened, and if he said he was a magician, then so be it. The goddess listened carefully to what he had to say, her eyes softening a little.

A family. That was what he wanted, huh? She'd never had one due to the circumstances of her...creation, but friendship satisfied her just fine. Friends could be just as good. Sometimes better.

"A family..."

"But...what's really the difference between close friends and family? Does blood actually mean anything or is the bond itself more important?" Marie rubbed the back of her neck. "Stuff like this isn't really my forte. This is something my friend Yu would know all about. I'd just like to know your opinion."

She didn't know if that was a wish she could grant, but being aware of it was a plus.

[plegiancrowmaster]

Me a god? Pshaaaw! No way! I’m not that high of a being, Nya ha ha!

[Henry laughed particularly loud because he wanted to believe in gods and even switched from religions pretty easily and even joined his country’s religion as Grimleal, worshiping a dragon who was supposed to bring apocalypse and later even helping the good guys to slay such “god”.]

I’m a pretty strong dark magician but I am by no means a god~ I can die like any other blood-filled human but I’ve just been able to talk to all kinds of living beings since I was a toddler!

Actually maybe that’s why my parents never liked me… Oh well, what’s past is past!

[prismaticeyes]

"You're a magician? Like on television? You better not be lying to me just to mess around."

Marie stared at him, disbelief filling her eyes, only to be quickly replaced with annoyance. She rolled her shoulders, huffing. "Stupidniceguyjerkfaceweirdo...Why do you say stuff like that with such a cheerful face? Just a blood-filled human, huh..."

She looked at him for a long time before asking her question. "Have...Have you ever wished for something?"

[prismaticeyes]

[☁︎] Separation.

[shuunenbukai-blog]

      …Ah, you-know-who. Yeah, she definitely knows who. Definitely knows she wants to kill those bastards for taking away the things she’s able to do. And her kagune. So she sympathizes with anger. But her next few words definitely catch her off guard. Widened eyes resulting from her response—she wished she could be that open about this sort of thing without having to face the you’re a fucking monster judgment and having people fear and want to kill her off the second they find out.

      "Well… Yeah. How do you know I’m not?" Probably in the same way she can tell this girl isn’t human, but she can’t be too sure unless she knew what this girl was. She’s cautious, expression still tinged with curiosity. "And what are you?"

[prismaticeyes]

Marie noted the shock and simply shrugged her disinterest. The city was filled with non-humans--it meant little to her, ultimately. The rain continued its gentle downpour, creating a faint mist along the ground.

"It's something...I can tell. Since I'm a deity." She lifted one hand and straightened her hat, nonchalant. "I can't get a vibe for whatever you are. You don't feel like a Shadow--you don't feel like anything I've encountered before." She didn't look scared, really, but Marie's natural skepticism made her sound a bit wary.

[plegiancrowmaster]

I get that a lot, tee hee~

[Being weird wasn’t anything bad to Henry and he was used to be called a freak, weird and other kind of things but he didn’t really pay too much mind to it.]

Well, I like animals a lot but I also like plants and other living beings y’know? I can even talk to them too!

[prismaticeyes]

"Plants can talk?" Marie was a goddess and even she couldn't chat it up with flora. "Are you some sort of god or something? There's no way you can just do stuff like this."

Henry was never going to be free of her. Marie was just infinitely fascinated by what he was telling her--she'd even forgotten about how they started talking in the first place.