ctrlsaltdel

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Amaranthe Foreste

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Ami is unconvinced. Refuses to be convinced, really. She doesn't argue, though, just watches the young man turn and walk through the door with an expression of mild interest. A kid--a bit younger than her brother, she judged at a glance--already bypassed the group altogether to enter. The whole gravity of the dream is pulling her in that direction, and she sees no reason to resist. This is kind of nice, really. For just a bit, she can stop worrying about the future. The surroundings are a little spartan, even for her taste, but other than that it feels like a little vacation.

“I’m Kathy. Hey.”

She looks over at Kathy, gives her a brief but friendly nod. Her introduction is similar. "Ami. Nice t'meetcha." Gesturing at the doorway: "I'm not sure what the deal is either, but I bet we can find some answers through there. I'm gonna head in, if you guys wanna come with." Without waiting for an answer, Ami casually strides in after the other two.

The barracks--she realizes now it could only be one thing--were utilitarian enough that she hadn't thought about her clothes. This new room, though... Well, the dream was good enough not to leave her in her actual sleeping dress, but the outfit she was wearing (stained t-shirt, ratty basketball shorts) was so out of place in these surroundings that she might as well have been standing there in her underwear. Hopefully this dream wasn't about her getting chewed out.

"Uh, thanks. Sir?" She thought about saluting, then thought she remembered that civilians weren't supposed to. Besides, none of them were actually wearing military uniforms. "I'm glad it has a name, but what is this place?"

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Thought I had posted this two days ago. Apparently I did not. Derp.

<Snipped quote by ctrlsaltdel>

I see. Out of curiosity, what were your expectations of Ijin before now?

@rush99999

Well, I was referring more to the fact that I was expecting more reactions like Molly's--a sort of reflexive sympathy for a child-shaped being.

As far my expectations of Ijin--well, I think it's still pretty early to make judgments about any of the PCs, and I know I personally don't really figure out my characters for a little while in a new campaign. But with those caveats, I was expecting him to be more on the restrained side than he has been so far.

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Ijin, the bullet makes a loud clang as it careens off of the ur-bot's upper leg. On a flesh-and-blood person, a disabling shot to the leg is a risky proposition--legs have big muscles and therefore big blood vessels that are all to easy to pierce with a bullet. This unit has no blood vessels--just servos, which your shot temporarily disables. The small ur-bot is driven to the ground--partially by the force of the bullet, but mostly from its own momentum. It manages to roll with the impact, but lands in a sprawl in the doorway, apparently dazed.

Clocks

Catching Cho-Tyrek: [ C O M P L E T E ]
Grease Fire Gets Worse: [ | | | - ]
Ur-Bot Escapes: [ - - - - ]

Crew Status

Gambits: 3

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

Amaranthe Foreste

---

---

Her eyes began to flutter open, but Ami squeezed them shut. She had never been a heavy sleeper, and she had learned that the best way to deal with waking up in the middle of the night was to just pretend it hadn't happened. Without even looking at the time she rolled over, pulling the covers around her and sinking into the sinfully comfortable mattress. Oh yes, she was definitely going right back to sleep.

Except for the shouting. Not from next door, either--the voice was unmuffled by walls or doorways. At first, sleep clouded her hearing, and she thought it was her mother--home drunk in the middle of the night. But even as Ami moved to pull the blanket over her head, she realized that the voice wasn't her mother's. Wasn't anyone she knew, in fact.

Ice rushed through her veins. Someone was in their apartment. She bolted upright, almost jumped out of the bed--

--and tumbled from the top bunk to land in a heap on the ground.

"Jesus fuck!" Ami winced, clutching her back where she had fallen. She latched on to the nearby bedframe to pull herself up, finally taking a good look at her surroundings.

Well, the good news was that there weren't any strangers in her apartment. Her eyes roved over the strange surrounds even as her mind raced.

Think, Ami. You went to sleep, then woke up in a weird room you've never seen. Gotta be a dream. That helped; some of the adrenaline that had been building up started to drain away, and she dusted herself off. She hadn't had a--what are they called? Loosey dreams?--dream where she knew it was a dream before. The experience was a bit strange, but she might as well see where it went, right?

To-Do

• Figure out what this place is

Her target was obvious at a glance, and she walked up to the door just as the pale young man was turning to address the room.

"You could safely say," she confirmed. Ami was only slowly realizing how many other people were here in her dream. She wasn't sure whether that was unusual. She turned to the other man (who she now realized had been doing the shouting) and gave him a loose wave to catch his attention. "Hey, boss. I don't know what you're worked up about but, uh. This is just a dream. So chill out." She punctuated her sentence with a solid, serious nod.

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

@rush99999 oh, that's correct, I just always find it interesting as a GM when players' reactions to a character differ significantly from my expectations

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Molly: "Hm, maybe I can get it surrender"

Ijin:

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Silas, you arrive at the scene of the crash. You've seen worse, but that says more about you than it does about the situation. The hoverbike has finally fallen silent, laying on its side against a nearby building; occasionally its damaged rear generator spits a dangerous-looking spark, but it doesn't seem to pose any immediate danger. Cho's body is across the street, and if anything, he might be in worse condition. His baggy clothing makes it hard to determine anything at a distance, but at a base minimum, his arm shouldn't be bending like that. Really, though, he needs a proper examination before you can say anything about his condition with confidence.

Molly, now that you're not in hot pursit, you can make out more details about the figure. The little bundle that was clutching Cho-Tyrek's back does in fact seem to be a child-sized ur-bot. The model isn't one you recognize. Ur-bots of this size tend not to be humanoid, for the simple fact that a humanoid body the size of a child isn't very useful for most kinds of work. It's the kind of thing that might be a rich person's toy, but this one has the overall appearance of a general-labor model, not the expressive features you'd expect from such a thing.

As you get closer, the little ur-bot gets more visibly nervous. At first it tugs harder on Cho's sleeve, but now even it seems to realize that it's not going to be able to drag the much larger man with it. Your words, meant to soothe it, instead jolt it out of its indecision; as you get into arm's reach, it jumps to its feet and bolts into the building, leaving your target lying on the threshold.

Meanwhile, flames are beginning to show in the back windows of the noodle truck.

Clocks

Catching Cho-Tyrek: [ C O M P L E T E ]
Grease Fire Gets Worse: [ | | | - ]
Ur-Bot Escapes: [ | - - - ]

Crew Status

Gambits: 3

I Am Thou: A Persona/SMT Inspired Story

I'm ready to get started, personally--I don't think there's anything still hanging that can't be resolved in the moment.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

The Crow:

Scum and Villainy - Plentiful Bounty

Ijin, your second shot is as unerringly accurate as your first. Just as Cho is bringing his blaster up to fire at the truck, your dart sinks right into his carotid artery. He drops the blaster, hand flying up to his neck, but the drugs he's already been hit with slow him down, and by the time he pulls the thing out, its smaller payload has already been delivered.

The bike starts to slow down as his hand begins to go slack on the grip; his other hand, the one that just dropped the gun, grasps the other side, and Cho turns his gaze to the front, shaking his head like a punchdrunk boxer. He's clearly trying to power through the potent cocktail of chemicals you've pumped into him, and just as clearly failing.

Molly and Quintus, the noodle truck is just about spent after the abuse you've heaped on it. The engines are shuddering, the fuses on the dashboard are winking out under loads they were never meant to sustain, and black grease smoke is pouring out of the back of the truck in an ever thicker cloud. None of that matters right now, though, because your method of attack is based on a piece of ancient wisdom, from back before mankind took even its first faltering steps into the stars.

Force equals mass times acceleration.

The weighty truck slams into the rear end of the lightweight hoverbike at an oblique angle. The impact disables one of the antigrav generators, and the mangled back side of the bike suddenly drops even as it goes into a spin, pivoting on its still-functional front "wheel". If the stoned assassin had any chance of keeping control of his vehicle, you've just scuttled it.

Cho seems to realize that, because he doesn't even try. As the bike careens out of control, he pulls the small figure off of his back, wraps himself around it, and bails. He bounces off the concrete--boy, that looks like it hurt--and lands in an insensate heap next to the door of an abandoned-looking building. He's still, now, but the small figure wriggles out of his unconscious grasp and grabs him by one wrist, struggling to drag him. It doesn't look like they're going anywhere quickly.

The figure turns to look at you, briefly. Its face is clearly not human, but somehow--even in the monocular gaze of an Urbot--you see fear.

Clocks

Catching Cho-Tyrek: [ C O M P L E T E ]
Grease Fire Gets Worse: [ | | - - ]

Crew Status

Gambits: 3